Return
by Katheryn Mae
Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in. - House/Cuddy. AU. post 8x04.
1. Part I

**Return**

**AN: I wasn't expecting to write a House/Huddy fanfic, but I was talking with Lauren (incendioctober) and she gave me an idea for one. So here we go, another attempt of mine to venture back into the world of fanfics.**

**Also, this does take into account all of the events at the end of season 7, as well as season 8, up until the end of "Risky Business" which is when this story takes place. **

**And voila, another return of Cuddy fic because the fandom can.**

_Summary: "What the hell happened in here?" The voice came as a shock to them, but even more so to the man who sat quietly watching Adams try and hide her shame. House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part I<span>

– _return –_

Jessica Adams blinked, her long dark eyelashes fluttering as the last of the orthopedic equipment landed at her feet, the baseball bat pivoted at a perfect thirty degree angle against the palm of her hand. She looked up at Gregory House, who stood in the corner of the official outer diagnostics office, and waited for a nod of approval from him. "Thank you." Passing the bat back to him, Adams looked around the darkened room, moving to collect her bag from besides the door.

"What the hell happened in here?" First to look up, Jessica Adams took in the woman in the doorway, her eyes wide. She had perfectly straight dark brunette hair, except for a gentle curl at the tips, and her grey eyes seemed to stare her down. The woman stepped into the room, the pristine white heels, which Adams aimed a guess at two inch, clicked faintly as she shifted her weight.

"I ... er ... can I help you?" Adams fumbled for her words, her head swiveling around to look to House for advice. She stopped, turning back to the woman when she realized House had vanished, and swallowing, Adams stuck out a hand nervously. "I'm Doctor Jessica Adams, one of Doctor House's team members."

"I don't need to know who you are." Sniffing a bit disdainfully, she flicked her gaze over to where House had disappeared into his inner office. "Can you just let him know that I need to pick up a file for one of his former patients who is currently in Mercy Hospital?"

"And you are...?" Adams raised an eyebrow at the woman, "I need to know who my boss is going to be speaking to if he needs an old case file." She paused, stopping as House opened the door to his inner office, waving her insane. "One minute." As Adams disappeared inside to the inner office, she opened her mouth to speak, confused by the way House was suddenly acting.

"You don't need to run everyone who comes in here through your own personal questioning. If they come in here to speak to me, then let them talk to me before you drive them away." House began, "I don't need you controlling this whole department, that's turning into Foreman's job. Sadly." Mumbling, he shoved Adams back towards the door, "Go tell whoever's out there to come in, and go home."

Backing out of the inner office, Adams turned back to look at the woman in front of her. "I'm sorry about that, Doctor House and I assumed that we were alone."

"So you and him are ...?" Arching an eyebrow, the woman gave Adams a once over. "You don't seem like his type."

"Oh ... no ... he and I aren't ... he got back this office ... I just signed divorce paper with my ex husband ... I'm sorry. I should get going." Adams' face was a bright red as she eyed the woman, "It was nice meeting you Mrs..."

"Ms." The woman stuck out her hand, shaking Adams' quickly, "Ms. Lisa Cuddy. I'm not married, and don't plan on it." Cuddy cracked an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry about your ex husband."

"Don't be," Adams tried to shuffle her way around Cuddy, "He deserved it, he was the one who screwed the relationship up."

"That's what we all say," Cuddy mumbled quietly to herself, "Good night Doctor Adams, thank you." She waited until Adams had left earshot of the office, and she turned, taking a deep breath before pushing open the door into the inner office. "House?"

"Hm?" House stood at the window, pointedly avoiding Cuddy's presence in his office, and he twirled his cane between his fingers. He ran his fingers along the oaken surface, the click of Cuddy's heels against the floor sending involuntary shudders through him.

"I need my mother's file." Her voice was sharp, and slightly high pitched, as if the seconds until the both of them would snap was evident. "She's in Mercy Hospital, making up imaginary symptoms again, but somehow, her doctors aren't falling for it. I told them that I could have her records from her surgery here sent over, but they said not to bother." Pausing, she inched her way closer to where House stood, "I need help House. I need _you_."

"You don't." House began, turning to pull away from Cuddy's gentle touch on his arm, "You need my brain to help convince a bunch of incompetent doctors at a fancy hospital that your mother has more medical mysteries stowed away inside her head just so you and your sister can spend your time falling over her in worry." He stepped back from her, his eyes narrowed, "If you wanted the file, you could have called."

"Why does it matter House?" Cuddy began, "I'm here now. Can I please just get her file from you and leave?"

"Is that what you want now Cuddy?" House snapped, turning to face her again, his eyes narrowed. "You can't just waltz in here then waltz back out like nothing's changed."

"Nothing _has_ changed House." Cuddy insisted, biting her lip, "And nothing will change." She reached for his arm, curling her fingers around his wrist slowly. The touch sent shivers along her spine and she had to look away from House's gaze to make sure that he didn't recognize the longing and loneliness in her eyes. "You're always going to be stubborn, selfish and a bit of a jerk. But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." Swallowing, she stepped back, having crossed the line into memories that were better left unsaid, "I'm sorry ... I should go."

"You're wrong." House looked up at her, his expression hollow. "We both screwed this up. We both wanted the same thing too much." He turned and dug into his desk, mumbling, "We both wanted the other to be happy, and somehow, we didn't figure that we could make that happen when we were together." Pausing, he held out Arlene Cuddy's file to her, "I miss you Cuddy."

"I miss you too House," Cuddy set the file on his desk, perching herself on the edge of his desk, and she reached for his hand again, squeezing it hesitantly. "I really do." She paused, "I shouldn't ... have put you through this. It wasn't fair, you're finally attempting to change your life now that I'm out of it, and then I came back in like nothing was wrong."

"I can't change Cuddy." House began, eyeing her, "You of all people know that." He went on, pulling his hand from her grasp, "No matter how hard I try, I can't change who I already am. And even if I could, I wouldn't be happy. I don't change Cuddy, not for myself, and not for anyone else." Stepping back, he nodded at the file on his desk, "You should leave, before anyone else knows that you came back."

"I guess you're right," Cuddy replied sadly, trying to avoid looking into House's eyes again, and she tucked the file under her arm. "I ... good luck House." Standing, she turned her gaze onto him quickly, "Maybe someday we'll be able to look at each other and pretend that we can be happy with this result. But I know that I'm not." Mumbling, she stepped back towards the door of the office, "I wish things could have ended differently."

House nodded, following Cuddy to the office door with her backpack in hand, and he stopped to hold open the door for her. "Good night Cuddy." He caught himself as he moved to kiss her gently, and straightened up, hoping that she hadn't spotted the gesture. "And I wish you were right about this."

"Me too." Smiling weakly, Cuddy stretched onto her toes to kiss House on the cheek, and she pulled back, a smile alight in her eyes. "I guess I'll see you soon House." Her smile widened as House managed to nod at her, "Thank you." Heading away from the diagnostics office, Cuddy repressed a shiver as she felt House's eyes on her, and hands shaking, she pressed the elevator buttons. And when the elevator arrived, she stepped onto it, keeping her head held high. But the second the doors slid shut, she let her walls fall down as she walked away from the most incredible man that she would ever know and the only man who would ever truly hold her heart.

– _return –_

And back in the diagnostics room, the faint sound of a scotch bottle could be heard as the love of Lisa Cuddy's life attempted, once more, to drown the sorrows of her goodbye in the only way he knew how.

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><p><strong>AN: Bye. (Aka, I'm running from anyone who wanted this to end differently.) But I really hope you enjoyed it, and I <em>might<em> consider a sequel/second chapter/continuation if I get good feedback.**

**Reena x**


	2. Part II

**Return**

**AN: After an amazingly well-received part one, here's a second part. I'm not sure how long I intend on making this, or even the direction it's going to go in, but here's a second part in the mean-time.**

**Also, I changed the summary just a bit since this is now somewhat multi-chaptered. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part II<span>

"What do you mean Lisa?" Julia Cuddy paced the ranch styled house, her eyes wide as she took in her sister's words. "You drove all the way to your former hospital, spoke to House about mom's file, then indirectly told him that you're not over him?" She turned to stare at her younger sister, "I thought that you were going to call the hospital." Rolling her eyes at Lisa, she stopped walking long enough to stare at her sister long and hard. "You still really do love him, don't you?"

"Jules, how can I not?" Cuddy began quietly, "He kept that hospital running. And when I was dean of it, I relied on him for a job. If I didn't have him, then I wouldn't have Rachel. We probably would have driven ourselves insane with mom when she was admitted there. Whether both of us like it or not, we need House."

"Correction Lisa, _you_ need House." Julia rolled her eyes at her sister again, "You've never gone more than a day without mentioning him before you left Princeton-Plainsboro, and even though you've stopped talking about both things to me, I know you miss him." She folded her arms across her chest, "And based on what you told me, he's right."

"Come on Jules, you're supposed to be telling me to stop pining over him and take care of Rachel." Leaning back in the wooden kitchen chair, Cuddy eyed her sister, "If I'm not mistaken, you were the first one to insist that I should be spending my time getting over him than waiting for the right time to realize that I still need him in my life."

"And where did that land you?" Julia cut her sister off, "You're a receptionist at Princeton General for twenty six hours a week and constantly end up badgering either mom or I to take care of Rachel when you're working so you can keep what little savings you're making." She folded her arms across her chest, "You were a fool to leave Princeton-Plainsboro Lisa, and you know it."

"I couldn't just let myself sit there, with the whole hospital knowing what he did to my home, and tell myself that everything was going to turn out okay." Cuddy began, arguing back weakly. "I know, at least now, that maybe I could have managed it, but it would have lead both House and I back to where we were before he and I were together. I don't know if now, after he and I went through everything together, plus yesterday, it would be incredibly awkward." She shrugged, leaning against the back of the chair as she balanced it back onto two legs.

Sighing, Julia disappeared into the front hall, mumbling quietly under her breath. "You are incredibly insane Lisa Cuddy." As she opened the door, she caught her niece's hand and smiled a bit more, "You're lucky Rachel doesn't remember House at all." She followed her niece back into the kitchen, remaining quiet. "Lisa, I'm going to head out, if there's anything you need to discuss with me, _and you know what I mean_, then call me."

"Bye Jules," Cuddy straightened the chair upright and reached for her daughter's hand once the front door had shut behind her sister, and she pulled Rachel onto her lap. "Hey sweetie."

Rachel Cuddy turned her bright eyed gaze onto her mother, a smile forming on her lips, "Hi mommy." Curling her hands around her mother's arm, she stared at her, slightly confused. "Mommy sad?"

"No Rachel," Kissing her daughter's forehead gently, Cuddy ran her fingers through her daughter's shoulder-length brown hair, "Mommy's just confused right now." She let out a sigh, trying to force a smile onto her face, and she waited until Rachel had turned her gaze on her, "I'm going to try to be happy again baby. I promise you that I'm going to make a change for the two of us."

_– return –_

James Wilson picked at the chicken caesar salad in front of him, thankful for the peace and quiet in his office for once. He always expected his breaks between consults, sitting with patients, reassuring families and being a messenger boy between his patients and families to be filled with House intruding on his personal, or professional, life. He knew, since House has returned from prison, that their friendship was going to be a constant struggle now. Their lives were too interconnected though, for their friendship to vanish into thin air, and he waited until the next moment when House would come to him with his newest complaint about his new team.

"I talked to Cuddy." Almost on cue, Gregory House half-limped and half-sauntered into the dimly lit oncologist's office, earning a wide eyed stare in return. "Adams nearly scared her off though."

"You _saw_ Cuddy?" Wilson stared at his friend, nearly choking on a leaf of lettuce, and he pushed the leftovers aside to stare at the proud diagnostician. "House, you're insane. Cuddy isn't coming back to Princeton Plainsboro after your incident with her dining room last year. She's moved on from you, and this hospital."

"Then why was she in my office last night?" House asked, raising an eyebrow as if challenging Wilson to blame him making up such a story. He dropped onto the couch in the office, kicking his feet up onto the corner of the desk, narrowly missing the container of salad, "And before you ask, no, I'm not imagining things. You can even ask Adams."

"House, I know you probably still miss her, but you need to accept that she's moved on. I don't need to sit here and tell you how hurt she was, and I know she wanted you two to come to an understanding, but you can't expect that now." Wilson pulled his salad away from House's graying sneakers and towards safety, "She needed to move on, for Rachel's sake."

"Arlene in in Mercy Hospital. She drove up last night and asked me for her mother's file." House made a face, remembering how stubborn Arlene had been when she was his patient, "According to Cuddy, her mother is making up crazy symptoms again."

"You can't just go giving out files to people who look like Cuddy," Wilson began, "are you sure you didn't give it to one of the hospital nurses by mistake?" He leaned forwards on his hands, "House, you know that Cuddy has moved on. She wanted to give you a chance at friendship, and well, honestly, both of you shot that horse in the face."

"I'm serious Wilson, it was her." House paused, "No one knows why Cuddy and I broke up _except_ Cuddy and I. A clone of her couldn't just walk into the diagnostics office and start discussing hers and my relationship unless, of course, we gained the ability to clone human beings now. And in that case, I would rather be sitting at home right now."

"With your porn collection?" Wilson rolled his eyes, "House, you're imagining things." He put away his salad as House stood, "Go back and work with your team. Cuddy isn't coming back to Princeton-Plainsboro, and even though I know you miss her, you should learn to work with everyone here."

"I'll prove you wrong Wilson," House limped towards the door, casting a look over his shoulder as his best friend, "I will."

As the door shut behind House, Wilson let out a long sigh and dug around in his files, searching for a loose slip of paper. He stared at the scribbled note under the cell phone number; _Don't let House get in touch with me. I'll talk to him when I'm ready. _Dialing the number, he cracked his knuckles, half expecting an answering machine recording, and he almost had to startle himself into existence when the ringing cut off.

"Hello? Wilson?" Wilson rolled his eyes, reminding himself that Cuddy must have programmed his office extension into her phone so she would be able to tell who was calling. Or at least where she was expecting the call from."

"Cuddy." Wilson had no patience to let introductions and pleasantries bother him. "House stopped in my office just now - did you happen to turn up at the hospital last night?" He spun a pen between his fingers, hearing Cuddy's sharp intake of air on the other end of the line.

"You remember what my note said, right?" Cuddy questioned, clearly referring to the note she had written for him under her new cell phone number. "I said that I would talk to him when I was ready Wilson. And seeing my mother in Mercy Hospital, repeatedly convince the doctors here that she has more invisible symptoms reminded me exactly why I admired him. He was able to make sense of her insanity and help her. I went back, looking for answers." She sighed quietly, "It's none of your business Wilson, this is something that House and I will have to figure out on our own. That is if he ever wants to see me again."

Wilson stopped unsure of what to say, and he nodded to no one in particular. "He misses you Cuddy. And whatever happened between you two last night, I know that he feels back about it."

"I know he does," Cuddy began slowly, "I do too. But as I said Wilson, this is for him and I to solve."

"That's all I needed to know Cuddy." Wilson began, "I've picked up the pieces of his life so many times before, and no matter what happens this time, I don't know what will be left to pick up if this goes wrong...again." He paused, "Thank you." Hanging up, he leaned back in the silence of his office, mulling over what exactly he would expect from House and Cuddy the second time around.

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><p><strong>AN: This is going to be kind of different that a lot of the return!Cuddy stories out there, just because I'm trying to keep it more in character to their selves from the earlier seasons. There will be hints of their later season selves, but for the most part, keep their personalities from seasons 1-5 in your mind.<strong>

**Reena x**


	3. Part III

**Return**

**AN: I know I had a few questions about stuff I've done, but I'm trying to keep it more realistic than some other stories. I know that there's loads of questions about why in the world I made Cuddy a receptionist at Princeton General, but I think I'm going to explain most of them within the next few chapters. So hopefully, by the end of (at least) part four or five, you'll understand why.**

**I also just considered just explaining them, but it's a lot easier to use storytelling instead. After all, I'm a writer, I do things for a reason. :) **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part III<span>

Lisa Cuddy tucked herself into the corner booth in the cafe, her wristlet in her lap, and she crossed her ankles under the table. She twirled a loose strand of hair between her fingers, just like she had come to do whenever she was thinking of House, and she twirled the plastic stirrer in her vanilla chai tea. Pressing herself into the shadows of the booth, she lifted the mug to her lips as she scanned the counter quietly, waiting for three o'clock.

Sometimes, she had to admit that she hated working as a receptionist, especially when she knew that she was worth so much more than that. But, she reminded herself that she wanted to make things right with Rachel, and when it came to forcing herself into another relationship or finding a job that would be less stressful on her, it would always be her job. Her promise to herself, and in a way, to Rachel's almost four year old self, was that she wouldn't put her daughter through leaving Princeton just because she had to change her life. So, putting her pride aside, she applied for a job at the only other hospital within twenty miles of her house.

"I thought you never wanted to see me again." Standing in front of the cramped booth, Gregory House leaned on his cane, staring hard at the mug of chai in front of his former boss, and love of his life. He deposited a plate on the table, a dark chocolate cupcake, complete with thick, fudge-like frosting, on it. "If that changed, then I guess you were waiting here for me."

Cuddy pulled her mug of chai towards her, avoiding staring into House's eyes as she nodded, "I changed my mind." She let out a long sigh, blinking to stare at him thoughtfully, "There's no use avoiding what we said in your office three days ago." Pausing, she looked up at him, watching in amusement as he tore off the wrapper around the cupcake hungrily, "And I know you told Wilson that you saw me too."

"He didn't believe me." House mumbled around the cupcake frosting, "I think he was trying to convince me that you moved on or something. Or that maybe I should have. Or that we should take a page out of book and not try and be another example of him and Sam." He paused to stare at Cuddy, who smiled at his words, "You know how bad he is with relationships."

"Or marriages for that matter." Cuddy laughed softly, enjoying the atmosphere between her and House, and she wanted to reach across the table and take his hand, and admit how much she truly missed him more than anything. She stopped stirring her chai to admire the way House shrugged off his leather motorcycle jacket, and she couldn't help but smirk to herself when she remembered peeling it off his shoulders after her desperate admittance of love. "Wilson certainly isn't one to get advice from."

"Unless you want to have a trail of divorces behind you." House nodded at the cupcake in his hand, "I'd rather watch him screw up his marriages than turn into him. The only thing that he's good for is mooching food and being a designated driver." He looked up at Cuddy again, "He didn't even tell me that the two of you kept in contact."

"We don't." Cuddy replied, almost too quickly, and she pushed her chai away, figuring that this would be the start of their more serious conversations. "I made it clear to him that after you ... well, left ... that I wanted to find something that could do without having this constant reminder of you in my life. I thought that somehow, leaving Princeton-Plainsboro and you, that would make change easier."

"People don't change Cuddy, you of all people should know that after dating me." House scraped the crumbs of the cupcake off the plate and crumbled them between his fingers. He looked up at her, his eyes slightly narrowed, "And most of all, people don't change randomly."

"I didn't change House, my lifestyle did." Cuddy began slowly, fiddling with the plastic stirrer, "If I changed, then I certainly wouldn't be sitting here with you discussing our relationship, or even our history in general. You mean a lot to me House, and no matter what, I can't change that about me." She twisted the stirrer between her fingers, knowing that House was watching her, waiting for her to slip up and say something unexpected or revealing about where they stood. Bending the stirrer, she couldn't help but laugh softly as some of foam from the tip of it landed on the collar of House's blazer.

"Is that your way of saying that you still have the hots for me?" House raised an eyebrow at her, leaning forwards on the table to eye her. He folded his hands in front of him, his eyes flicking over Cuddy's body, looking for her tell, and he frowned, muttering. "Damn. You figured out your tell."

"I ... what?" Now it was Cuddy's turn to blush, "I don't even know what my tell is House, how could I have gotten rid of it?" She curled her fingers around the mug of chai tea, seeking comfort in its warmth, and she couldn't help but let memories of their relationship flood her senses again. Shuddering at the feel of the hot liquid of the chai sloshing out of her mug and onto her blouse as she lifted it to her lips, she blushed even more, reaching for the napkin that rested under House's left hand.

Reaching for the napkin, Cuddy couldn't help but smirk back at the gaze that House gaze the spots of chai tea on her blouse, and she curled her fingers around his wrist. Almost instantly, she pulled her fingers back, wincing internally at the sparks that the connection send up her skin. She pulled the napkin with her, nearly tearing it in half, and she brushed her dark brunette curls away from her face as she dabbed at the spot on her shirt. "Stop staring at my breasts House." Cuddy muttered, knowing that she knew House too well to know that his eyes would be focused on her.

"You need someone to make sure that you cleaned all that foamy tea off your pretty shirt." House nodded, eyeing the napkin, and he cocked his head towards that tea. "Thai stuff looks like poison anyways, why would you want to drink that?" He sniffed at it, "It's worse than the stuff that Adams drinks."

"She seems like she has the hots for you." Cuddy muttered quietly, hoping to steer the topic away from her anatomy and back onto more polite conversation topics. She picked at the edge of the napkin, trying to peel it apart into smaller bits.

"Jealous?" House smirked at Cuddy's words, and he pulled the napkin bits from her hands, sprinkling them across the table. "I heard what she said to you the other night, you know she's recently divorced. Praying on needy women is Wilson's territory, we already decided this." He stopped as Cuddy pulled out her phone, and he eyed it, waiting for a hint that she could stay with him a bit longer.

"I'm sorry," Cuddy blushed furiously as she hid her phone back in her purse, "I ... work calls." She hid her blush as she mumbled quietly, "And don't ask me what I'm doing House."

"Where do you work?" House smirked, sensing Cuddy's obvious embarrassment as he collected her cold chai tea, "Because it can't be worse than Princeton-Plainsboro."

"Princeton Gen," Cuddy muttered under her breath, "It was the only thing I could find that didn't compromise my time with Rachel or involve me moving out of Princeton." She collected her belongings and stood, watching House as he helped her clear off the small table, "And before you ask, no, I'm not anyone important there."

House eyed her curiously, thoughtful, "You're miserable again Cuddy. Don't let it control your life." He limped away to bus the dirty dishes back to the counter, then stepped up besides her, "You know what you need to do to be happy, go after it and do it." Pausing, he waited until their eyes met, and he stared into hers, "You know you deserve it Cuddy." Stepping back again, he turned and limped from the cafe, not bothering to give her a second look back.

Cuddy bit her lip as soon as House left, and a part of her heart reminded her that House was right on his assumptions. She _was_ miserable again, and like always, she would father face stability than risk herself for happiness that she already expected wouldn't last long. It wasn't like she couldn't try to find happiness, because, she reminded herself that she had thought both Lucas and House could have helped solve that problem in her life, but now she knew Rachel would be able to remember. Luck had saved her with her relationship with Lucas, along with the majority of her and House's relationship, but now that she knew Rachel would be able to remember the important people in both their lives, Cuddy had to pick.

House would always be right, she would always put her job and the happiness of others first, and in turn, she would allow herself to be miserable. And here she was again, keeping herself guarded from the one man who continually drew her in, all because of the echoes of the past. She and House would never change, no matter how much either of them tried to convince the other of it, and in order to change her lifestyle, Cuddy had to start somewhere.

And, with a sudden bounce in her step, Cuddy hooked her wristlet onto her arm and headed for the door, new plans forming in the back of her mind.

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><p><strong>AN: Part four. I have an idea of where this story might go now, but it's subject to change with each chapter. Also, I'm trying to stay as IC as possible with their season 1-5 selves, so if anything seems to season 6-8 ish or completely out of character, then feel free to drop me a line.<strong>

**Reena x**


	4. Part IV

**Return**

**AN: Part four. I have an idea of where this story might go now, but it's subject to change with each chapter. Also, I'm trying to stay as IC as possible with their season 1-5 selves, so if anything seems to season 6-8 ish or completely out of character, then feel free to drop me a line. Also, I'm going to have side stories in this, just because**

**Sorry for the slow update, I missed about a week of school because my sinusitis came back and they had to put me on stronger medicine. I've also been busy, I've got about ten weeks left until I graduate, so I have to make sure this last quarter really counts. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part IV<span>

Julia Cuddy was once again pacing the hallway of her sister's ranch styled house, "You _quit_." Her voice rose a few pitches as she continued, "Lisa, what the hell were you thinking when you quit? That reception job at Princeton General is the only income you have now. Sure you have leftover from when you were at Princeton-Plainsboro, but that doesn't last forever. You have to put Rachel through school for goodness sakes."

"I know I do," Lisa Cuddy looked up at her sister, looking rather bored, "It was something that House said to me." She knew the mention of her ex boyfriend would catch Julia's attention, and she sat up a bit straighter, "House accused me of being miserable again yesterday, when we went to meet up at Milan's for coffee. He said so once before, about a year before I adopted Rachel." Shrugging quietly, she avoided her sister's gaze, "I gave them my two week's notice today Jules, and besides, I have enough money in the bank for Rachel and I to live comfortably for six months."

"And you'll have a job in six months Lisa?" Julia raised an eyebrow at her sister, "Unless you decide that you want to move, then you either go back to Princeton General or Princeton-Plainsboro, and last time I checked, you explained that you had good reasons for leaving the latter." She stopped pacing to perch herself on the edge of the coffee table in the living room, staring at her sister, "And it's just wrong to quit one job to just take another at the same location."

"I don't know what I'm going to do yet, I just know that when House says something, he's usually right about it." Cuddy tore her gaze away from her sister's, mumbling, "He thought that I would be a horrible mother, and look what I've put Rachel through in the past four years...she doesn't deserve that."

"You're going to let House get to you about your relationship with your daughter?" Stunned, Julia stared at her sister as she nodded, "Lisa, you're everything that society expects of a single mother. Hell, you're probably even more. You managed an impossible work schedule at Princeton-Plainsboro, raised Rachel better than most women working as much as you did will, and still made time for a personal life."

"Not that the last one worked out too well," Cuddy couldn't help but laugh, "But I know you're right Jules. But I can't continually bounce from job to job just because I don't have any sort of clue what I can expect to spend for the year on Rachel and I." She glanced up at her sister, "I can't find anywhere without going back to Princeton General or Princeton-Plainsboro without knowing that either of those places have remotely bad memories with me."

"Lisa," Julia leaned forwards, her auburn hair falling into her face as she stared at her younger sister in half disbelief, "Look your credentials. Sure, you had a rough year and a half after you and House broke up, but any hospital would be wildly insane to not hire you in a heartbeat. You and I both know that you made a mistake leaving Princeton-Plainsboro, but unless you can magic your job back there, then there's a good place to start."

"You want me to go back to Princeton-Plainsboro, where House is, and work?" Lisa Cuddy rolled her eyes, "Julia Cuddy, what the hell are you smoking?"

"I'm dead serious Lisa." Julia began slowly, "You ran that hospital, no matter what, I'm sure they have a lot of respect for you. I bet that they know what you dealt with this past year, at least through the grapevine about you and House, and sure, they might start to assume that you were running away from it. But you should prove to them that you're stronger than that, hell, I _know_ you're stronger than that Lisa." She moved closer to look her sister in the eyes, "If you know your best shot at a job is back at Princeton-Plainsboro, then go back."

"It's not that easy Jules. I have a reputation to uphold. And what if, in ten years or so, Rachel stops by the hospital there and overhears about House's and my past? Or about how I ran away from the hospital the first time because I was too weak to back in there after what he did?" Slumping against the couch in defeat, Cuddy rubbed her temple, "You know, maybe I'm wrong about staying in Princeton, getting out of here and starting all over again in a new hospital would be the thing. I bet, like you said, with my credentials, I could go anywhere."

"But what about House?" Julia asked quietly, eyeing her sister, knowing that her sister wouldn't change her life without thinking of the only man she knew was important to her. "I know, no matter how hard you try, you're going to want to stick around as long as he's here. And if I know you as well as I think I do now, you're not going to even touch job applications that involve the two of you living more than twenty miles away from each other."

Blushing, Lisa Cuddy nodded and turned her gaze away from her sister to nod quietly, and she let a smile grace her features. "Jules. You know as well as I do that he's always going to be the most incredible man I've ever known, and probably have loved too, but I need to make it work for both him and I. I'm not going to dive back into that relationship, knowing that he's going to be more present in Rachel's life now that he was before, without knowing that there's going to be some trouble. And I need to know, this time, that he and I can get through it together without loosing each other."

"Then tell him that." Julia raised her eyebrows at her sister, "I know that House is right, you have been miserable ever since the two of you broke up. We don't have to have spent all of out time together for me to know that you definitely changed after it." She waited until she had Cuddy's full attention before continuing, "I know how determined you have always been, and running away to Princeton General isn't the right answer, and you knew it when you did it."

"I guess you're right." Nodding slowly, Lisa Cuddy smiled and glanced up at the clock above the mantle, then to her sister. "Don't you ... have to get back to your place? It's almost three, and well, you have your family." She stopped as Julia shook her head, and she widened her eyes. "Jules? What happened?"

"Anthony's leaving me." Her eyes sad, Julia let out a long sigh, suddenly envious of her younger sister's lack of relationships in her life. "He ... said he needed a change ... I don't understand how he could think of it, especially with his and my kids, but he did it. And well, I have no way to fight it." She bit her lower lip, looking up at her sister, "My first priority is going to be my kids now, and you and Rachel of course, but I guess it's for the best."

"You can't be serious Jules," Cuddy began, looking up at her older sister in surprise, "Your husband just up and decided to leave you?" She raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "Did he talk with you at all before? I mean, I don't sit around and watch you five all the time, but you honestly didn't notice a thing?"

"No offense Lisa, but I've been pretty busy helping you figure out your own personal drama with House for the past few days. And well, you know I also have my kids to take care of." Julia let out a long sigh, "I guess, maybe I was just being stupid to think it lasts forever. I don't have a relationship like you and House have, and I guess that would be something that I want." She paused, "I know you always thought that he was a complete ass, but I know you two both love each other more than any other couple that I've ever met."

"Jules, shut up before I hit you." Cuddy made a face at her older sister, narrowing her eyes, "I don't need you to remind me of what my feelings are for House when we're talking about you and your husband." She paused, "Are you and Anthony considering anything with your kids? You know, like splitting their time between each of your places?"

"I don't know yet," Julia pressed her fingers into her temple, "I'm still reeling from him telling me, to be completely honest. He sprung it on me so suddenly, and to be frank, I don't know what either he or I could have done wrong this time. I, for one, have made sure to be a good mother to my kids, no matter what happens." She let out a long sigh at the thought, "But I have no idea how to tell them anymore."

"Maybe you and Anthony just stopped loving each other." Cuddy inched closer to her sister and rested her hand on her arm, "I thought, hell, I was convinced, that I was in love with Lucas when I met started dating him. But I realized, actually very quickly, that he was nothing more than a distraction from my feelings for House. It took me ages to end things with him, you know that, no matter what mom tried to tell me otherwise. I thought that I knew he was a good role model for Rachel, but if anyone, I'd rather have her around House." Letting out a long sigh to echo her sister's, Cuddy squeezed her sister's arm gently, "It happens to all couples Jules, that's what makes love so difficult. But if it means something to you, then you keep fighting for it."

"I know Lisa," Julia turned to conversation back to her sister, "But you and House have more than a little fixing to do to your relationship before it's right again. We all know that, no matter how hard you try and convince any of us otherwise, you two will find a way to make things right and be together."

"I've already started," Lisa Cuddy smiled, "I told you that's why he and I met at the cafe, it was a way to test the waters, to see if there was still a chance that he'd want to be around me. And he didn't run away, he actually seemed content with the fact that I needed time before he and I could consider being comfortable around one another anyways." She paused, "My next goal is to finish up these last two weeks at Princeton General, then find a place where I can be happy back at Princeton-Plainsboro."

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><p><strong>AN: Meh - kind of filler. But the next chapter or so should be good! More Wilson, Julia and maybe all four of them in one room.<strong>

**Reena x**


	5. Part V

**Return**

**AN: Here's part five - with Wilson, House, and both Cuddys (Lisa and Julia, I mean).**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part V<span>

James Wilson was second into the small cafe where exactly sixty-two hours ago, House and Cuddy had officially decided to sit down and talk openly for the first time since she had left Princeton-Plainsboro. Now, he sat across from an impatient Gregory House, who insisted that this was going to be nothing more than a "little grown up chat over drinks". Of course, Wilson knew that coffee and tea wasn't exactly the kind of drinks that House would have preferred in this occasion, but he knew it would have been the only thing that Cuddy would approve of.

"So, you said that Julia is tagging along to this as well?" He cocked his eyebrow upwards as he looked at the collection of his potato chips that House was making on a paper napkin. "And tell me again why you and Cuddy are suddenly deciding that it's perfectly fine for the two of you to feel comfortable around each other again." Wilson stopped as Cuddy and her sister stepped into the cafe and he mumbled quietly to House as they approached him, "Nevermind."

"Sorry about that," Julia slid into the booth, seating herself across from Wilson, "I don't know if Lisa told either of you, but Anthony and I are getting divorced and well, I had to drop my kids and Rachel off at our mother's before we got here." She paused, turning her gaze on House at his surprised expression, "Yes House, Lisa and I do leave our mother in charge sometimes."

"Funny," House began, "When I was in the room with Arlene, she seemed determined to warp Rachel into a materialistic toddler with an exceptionally great interest in making the people around her feel inferior and incapable of managing their own lives." He stopped as Wilson kicked him under the table, and he looked at his friend, "Wilson, when you spend as much time with Arlene Cuddy as I did, then you'll understand."

Glancing to where the younger of the two Cuddy sisters hovered impatiently by the counter, House eased his way out of the booth. "I'll be right back you two, don't say anything too intelligent when I'm not here." Limping towards the counter, he stopped a few inches short of Cuddy, pausing.

"I know you're standing there House," Lisa Cuddy turned her head slightly to stare at him, a faint smile on her lips. "I saw you get up from the table, and unless you think you're making a run for it, there's no other reason why you would have left my sister and Wilson alone at the table." She smiled, tapping her foot against the linoleum flooring, "You obviously have some sort of ulterior motive now that Julia's single."

"Oh?" House couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at the thought of his ex-girlfriend's sister and his best friend together, "You know that you be one thing that you never want to do." He poked his finger at a jar of buttered cookies, his eyes on the clerk behind the counter, "Two of those."

The clerk looked up, startled, and he nodded, his strawberry blonde hair flopping into his face as he made eye contact with House. After a few moments, he nodded at both Cuddy and House, "He's right though, you don't set up your sister with his best friend on purpose. It's just plain weird, unless of course, you two are having some sort of double wedding."

"Oh ... we're not ... no ... we're not together." Cuddy blushed furiously as House's arm brushed against hers as he paid for the two cookies, and she eyed House. "In fact, I used to be his boss."

"That didn't stop you then." House snarked back, eyeing her as he took back the change and cookies from the clerk. "You've always had the hots for me Lisa Cuddy." He limped back towards the table, a wide grin on his face, leaving the clerk behind the cash register stunned, and Cuddy incredibly embarrassed.

"What did you do?" Julia narrowed her eyes at House as he slid back into the booth, and her gaze flickered between the cookies and House's smirk.

"He's being House," Cuddy stepped up, passing her sister's latte to her, and she slid into the booth across from House, looking up at them all. "You two don't need to worry about this, it's really nothing." She pointedly turned her gaze on both her sister and Wilson, her eyes slightly narrowed as she waited for them to take in her words, "House and I don't need babysitters, we can be mature adults about all of this."

"That doesn't mean we can't all stay here." Julia nudged her sister in the ribs, earning a famous Cuddy eyeroll in return, "I actually enjoy the break from my kids and work." She stopped, reminding herself that her sister hadn't yet told either men across from them about her leaving her job at Princeton General in hopes of coming back to work at Princeton-Plainsboro, and she bit her lip. "Don't get me wrong, I love both, but after Anthony's announcement last week, I'm thankful for the break."

"Understandable," Wilson nodded slowly, looking across the table to meet Julia's darker eyes, "I've never been on that side of the fence, but I assume it's no easier than this side." He paused, turning to stare at House as he laughed. "Unlike you, House, I actually do feel sympathy when letting something screw up relationships with the people who mean most to me."

"That's not fair," Cuddy came to House's defense, "Wilson, you're the king of failed marriages, you don't have any right to harass any of us about our relationships." She stopped as House stared at her, deep in thought, and she paused, "Not all of us think that picking the next available suitor is the right choice. There's other ways to go about making relationships work."

"Yeah, and you're one to talk to Lisa," Julia nudged her sister, pausing, "You've had, what, two relationships in the past fifteen years?" She glanced to where House crumbled half a cookie in his hand, sprinkling the crumbs onto the plate in front of him, "None of us are all that great examples, at least when it involves relationships working out."

"Uhm." Cuddy gave a quiet cough, getting the attention of both Wilson and House, avoiding their gazes as she began slowly. "I spoke to the dean at Princeton General, thanks to Julia's advice, and well ... I decided that I deserve better." She stopped, hearing both House and Julia laugh quietly at her words, "Both of you told me that, and you're both right. I do deserve a lot better than a receptionist job."

"Then where...?" Wilson began, clearly missing the point of why Cuddy was bringing up leaving her job, "You've barely been at Princeton a year, why rush your time in each job?" He glanced to where House, Julia and Cuddy all were smirking at his words, and he stopped, "Oh."

House nodded slowly, looking back to where both Cuddys muffled their laughter, "Are you already that desperate to steal your job back from Foreman?" He stopped, seeing Cuddy bite her lip, and he eyed her, "You are?" Smirking, he nodded his head towards Julia, "Careful, she might want to steal your kids from you ... ow!" Wincing, he frowned at his ex across the table, "That's my leg, you know."

"I'm perfectly aware," Cuddy smiled serenely, and she crossed her ankles neatly under the table, letting her ballet flats drop off her feet. She smirked a bit, internally reminding herself of Julia's suggestion earlier to flirt with House, and she stirred her chai tea thoughtfully, "But it was only the right thing for me to do Wilson, I didn't fit in at Princeton General, nor did my credentials fit any openings they were likely to have within the next five to ten years."

"Things change," Wilson began slowly, seemingly still unconvinced that Cuddy was actually seriously considering coming back to Princeton-Plainsboro after her and House's incident last year. "Maybe it would be fair to you, and to Rachel, if you had a less stressful job. I know it took a toll on all my marriages, you don't want the same thing to happen with you and Rachel."

"I know how to raise my daughter Wilson," Cuddy snapped, Wilson's comments reminding her of something that her mother had said before, "And besides, I'm not happy to work at Princeton General. There's no point in staying in a job where I know, even in five to ten years, I'll still be paid the same wage and work the same hours. I don't like common." She paused, not looking at anyone in particular. "Common is boring."

House coughed loudly, and the entire table looked towards Wilson, who was nodding slowly, "Well, you think it's going to be any different if you come back to Princeton-Plainsboro?" Wilson hesitated before making eye contact with Cuddy, missing the lost gaze in her eyes, "You left the hospital once before, what makes you so sure that you're not going to leave it again?"

"Because I know what I want." Cuddy snapped, slightly defensive, now both of herself and her hospital, "I spent the last year of my life being absolutely miserable, and I'm not going to allow that to change my relationship with Rachel. I know going back to Princeton-Plainsboro might stress the relationship I have with her, but she deserves what's best for her. And if I can't find a place to work where I can come home at the end of the day, knowing the time I spent away from her is well-spent, then I shouldn't work at all. I have the money to take off time to spend with my daughter, but I'm not going to force it Wilson. If I want to raise Rachel right, and happily, then I'm going to do it on my own terms."

"Atta girl," House mumbled, still shaken by Cuddy's words earlier, and he looked up feeling her gaze on him. "That doesn't mean Foreman's going to like hiring you back at all though." He paused, crumbling the second sugar cookie between his fingers, "He seems pretty comfortable being dean."

"I never said that I wanted to be dean of medicine again," Cuddy began slowly, and she nudged her sister, who was slowly trying to engage Wilson in a stare-down across the small booth. "I just want to be happy." She paused, "And I'm not going to do that by following the norm." Looking at House again, she bit her lip, "I like uncommon. It's what works best for me."

"That's nice," Wilson nodded slowly, oblivious to House's reaction to Cuddy's words, and he watched both Cuddys stand, "Are you both leaving?"

"Our mom," Julia began, "She isn't always the kind of person that we want to leave around the kids for that long. Besides, I have to bring them all to the zoo so this one," she nudged Cuddy in the ribs, "can hurry up and finish her last two weeks of work." She watched quietly as House collected his stuff from the table and limped back towards the counter, leaving them all in the corner, and she eyed her sister, "What...?"

"Nothing," Cuddy mumbled, her heart sinking. _If House didn't have the courage to look at her, almost two years after their relationship, then she didn't know how he would be able to realize that she was always going to be in love with him._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Meh, I feel really off about that chapter, but I wanted to write discrete Huddy flirting in front of Julia and Wilson, so there we go. <strong>

**Reena x**


	6. Part VI

**Return**

**AN: Here's part six. I noticed in the last chapter, that the character's seats at the table changed as I wrote, but the correct seating was Wilson and House on one side, then Julia opposite Wilson and Cuddy opposite House.**

**Also, guys, I had no purposeful intention of making you all ship Julia and Wilson, but hey, it might be fun to write. I'll see. ;) **

**Also, a note that I'm going away on April 6th, so don't worry if I don't update for awhile. But I'll try and write before I go, so I can at least update while I'm traveling. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part VI<span>

House picked at the corner of the file in front of him, ignoring the child who rocked back and forth in front of him, along with the worried mother besides them. Peeling back the edge of the paper file, he held it up in front of them two patients in a desperate effort to kill some time in the clinic, earning a clap of amusement from the child. He turned to look at the mother, who looked bored, and as always, unamused by his schemes to stall.

"Are you just going to stand here all afternoon?" The mother folder her arms across her chest, and she flicked a imaginary speck of dust off of her arm. "Unlike you, the rest of the world has a schedule to live by, so if you can't hurry up, then we'll find another doctor who can do it."

"I'm trying to make a point," House held out the peeled back corner of the file folder in front of the woman, "See this torn and mangled edge?" He nodded to the scar on the child's knee, "That's how you screwed up your kid's knee. If you don't bother to take care of it properly, then it gets ruined in seconds."

"I bandaged it up as soon as she fell, antibacterial creams and all." The mother rested her hand on her daughter's arm, eyeing House closely, "There's nothing I did wrong."

"You probably thought though, just like a paper cut or any other kind of boo-boo, if you just left it alone, then it would be all better." House looked to the mother's daughter, "That's what your mommy did, right?" Off the girl's nod, he turned back to look at the mother, "There's your problem. You assumed that all your problems with your kid falling would mysteriously get better like magic. Sadly, you realized that too late, and you let the whole cut get infected." He scribbled out a prescription for the mother, stuffing it into her hand, "Next time, maybe you'll take the time to treat your kid's scrapes properly."

The mother gaze House a scathing look, her eyes narrowed as she nearly dragged her daughter from the exam room, nearly running into the clear doors as she stormed from the clinic.

"House."

House knew his voice, and he rolled his eyes as her turned to look at Foreman, who stood in the doorway of the exam room. He stuffed the prescription pad back into his pocket and eyed him, "I'm doing my job."

"We need to talk," Foreman eyed him, remaining oddly oblivious to House's comments about his last clinic patient. "My office. Now." He strode across the clinic and into the room, knowing that House would follow, just to stay on his good side.

"You know she should have properly taken care of her kid's boo-boo," House limped into the office, staring down at Foreman, who was seated in the reclining chairs where Cuddy's desk had been. "She deserved to have me snap at her for that."

"This isn't about your clinic patient House," Foreman folded his arms across his chest as House dropped into the chair across from him. "An interesting application came across my desk this morning. Well, it was actually not my desk specifically, but the hiring team figured it was only right that they sent this one straight to me after receiving it." He waved an application in front of House's face quietly, "I could have sworn that once you leave a top-ranking position anywhere, the last thing you do is attempt to come crawling back to it."

"If you're talking about Cuddy, then I'm leaving." House stood, feigning boredom, "I have a case."

"No you don't." Foreman shot back, "House, this is serious." He waited until House returned to the chair, "I need to know if you told Cuddy to apply back to Princeton-Plainsboro. Because I can't hire her back without knowing her reasons behind coming back."

"She missed me?" House faked a smile, hoping to keep Foreman in the dark about his lingering feelings for Foreman's predecessor. "Oh, that's sweet. Make sure she gets an office very far away from me, just so she has to walk over the hospital again."

"House." Foreman's tone turned even more serious than the diagnostician thought were possible. "Cuddy applied to work _for_ you." He waited, knowing that he had House's attention again, and he eyed him. "You knew. You knew that Cuddy wanted to come back to work here."

"I didn't." House lied, raising an eyebrow at the image of Cuddy working with the rest of his diagnostics team. He stared Foreman down, waiting. "You can go ahead and hire her, I don't care."

"I'm not letting her work with you House." Foreman began slowly, "I know how it was when she used to be dean, and I'm not letting that back into this hospital. You may have been able to go behind her back before, but if I catch anyone from your team trying to start that up again, then your jobs are all going to be on the line." He stopped, "If I approve Cuddy to work here again, then she's forbidden to speak with you House. And vice versa, I don't need the two of you undermining hospital policy. Again."

House frowned, standing and limping towards the door, "How about I just go talk to that hiring team myself. After all, she's the one who broke up with me, and her return obviously isn't going to give you the boot from administrator unless you screw up." He pulled open the door, not waiting for a reply, and headed for the fourth floor to the main office of the hiring committee.

– _return –_

"Doctor House." The woman behind the desk in the hiring offices looked up as he swung open the door, and she flicked a strand of her blonde hair over her shoulder. She folded her hands across her desk, smiling up at him as he dropped into the chair across her desk.

"Foreman's an idiot." House began, scanning for a nameplate on the desk, "He knows perfectly well that Cuddy has the credentials to get hired back here, and just be reading her application, you know it too ..." He looked for a nameplate, "Mrs. Johnson." Pausing, he looked up at her, "Lisa Cuddy is one of the best doctors this hospital has. Sure, she might be insane and slightly overbearing, but she knows what the hell she's doing."

"Ah, and you know this how?" Penny Johnson raised a manicured eyebrow at House.

"I guess you didn't even bother to look at her application yet," House began, "She ran this place for almost ten years, and now Foreman thinks he can run a hospital." He sniffed, his distaste of Foreman's new position more evident than ever, "He has no business in that job."

"Doctor House...I only just started here last month," Penny Johnson raised her hazel eyes from the application in front of her, "I know nothing of the dynamics in this hospital, nor about any Lisa Cuddy who applied here." She rifled through the papers on her desk, "In fact, the only application we got here this morning was addressed to be read by Doctor Foreman only, so I sent it straight off to him without opening it." Pausing, she blinked as realization dawned on House, "I'm sorry I missed your girlfriend's application, but I guess it had to go directly to the top."

"She's not my girlfriend," House snapped, a bit too quickly, and he stood, limping towards the door, "Foreman is just desperate to keep her from his precious hospital because he knows that she can run it better than he can." He stared at Penny Johnson as he reached the office door, trying to read her confused expression, and after a few minutes, he blinked, leaving her in stunned silence.

"Hello?" Penny Johnson reached for the office phone, as it rang, seconds after House's leaving, and she blushed furiously, realizing that she had already screwed up. She dug under the pile of applications on her desk, nodding her head as Foreman spoke on the other line, and she pulled out the one on the bottom. As soon as Foreman ended the call, she nearly screamed in relief and she dug though her desk for her lucky pen.

Pretending to scan the application, Penny uncapped her pen and signed the form at the bottom, approving the new hire. And as she looked up, a smile spread onto her lips, her eyes alight with a smile, speaking to no one in particular.

"Well, Doctor House, you got what you wanted. And, Lisa Cuddy, welcome to the Princeton-Plainsboro Surgical Staff."

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><p><strong>AN: Well, meh, I tried not to make it incredibly predictable, but the drama is still waiting to start. <strong>

**Reena x **


	7. Part VII

Return

AN: Part seven. I'm heading off soon (I'm actually am in the airport right now) for Paris, so I'll try and update once or twice while I'm there. It all depends how much I write on the plane. :)

Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in.

House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04.

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><p>Part VII<p>

The parking lot across from the hospital was nearly empty, and for seven in the morning, Gregory House was surprised at the amount of nervous families wasn't higher. As he headed towards the swinging doors in the corner of the building, he shot a few glances at exiting night shift doctors stared at him curiously. He knew that everyone knew who he was here, after all, they had had a tiny dosage of his doctoring skills once before when Foreman had attempted to start anew.

"I'm looking for a patient." House sauntered up to the receptionist's desk, leaning against the counter. He was thankful for the height of the desk, and his cane was hidden under it, perfectly aware of the once-over the receptionist was giving him.

"Name?" The man blinked at him, oblivious to the sense of urgency in House's eyes, his gaze drawn to a coworker across the lobby.

"Ms. Arlene Cuddy," House began slowly, and he followed the receptionist's gaze across the hall. "I heard from a family member that she was here." He nodded, knowingly, understanding the meaning behind the male receptionist's distraction and he stared back. "Take it from me, never date someone who won't notice you."

"Wh...what?" Staring at him, the receptionist busied himself with looking up Arlene Cuddy's hospital room number, "She's my ex-girlfriend...it's not ... I think she still has feelings for me ... I don't know."

"Just wait until she quits, then you'll get your answer." House drummed his fingers on the counter. "Room?"

"Oh, sorry...uh, she's on the third floor, room 437." He looked up to where the woman he had been watching disappeared into an elevator. "And she's not going to leave. She has a respectable job here."

"Funny," House limped around the desk towards the elevator, calling over his shoulder to the receptionist, "That's what I thought when my last relationship ended." He was nearly shouting now, and the receptionist had stood, looking at House curiously, "Never underestimate a woman who knows what she wants." Stepping onto the second elevator, House watched the receptionist's expression turn to one of shock as the doors slid shut.

As he stepped off at the third floor, House glanced around, searching for a sign that would point him into the right direction. Limping in one direction, he scanned the room numbers, almost pleased with himself when he found himself at room 437 in a matter of seconds. Pausing outside the door, he waited, unsure of how his presence would be received, and he knocked quietly.

"Come in." House nodded, expecting Arlene's voice, and he hesitated for a second after he recognized it as Cuddy's.

"Lisa, get the door, it's probably one of the doctors." Arlene's voice was tired, and had lost it's usual sense of command. After a quiet protest, the sound of footsteps could be heard, and House tensed on the other side of the door, waiting. He knew that, in one sense, Cuddy would expect him to show up, but he also knew that she would be furious that he didn't have any respect for her personal boundaries.

"Yes? Come ... oh." Cuddy stopped, a strand of hair falling into her face as she looked up, "What are you doing here?" She stepped back, looking back into the hospital room at her mother, "I'll ... uh ... be right back." Turning to House, Cuddy stared at him, her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down. "What the hell is going on?"

"I ... I didn't know you'd be here." House began, and he stared at Cuddy long and hard, searching her eyes for a sign that she would accept his intrusion. "You said your mother was here, and I figured that if I could talk to your mother alone then I could explain things." He shifted on his feet, looking at her, "I drove almost two hours, lied to Foreman about not coming in because he thinks it has to do with Wilson's lunch date, and well, now have to see you."

"Wilson has a lunch date?" Cuddy asked, trying to steer House away from the hospital room, and she muffled her laughter. Wrapping her fingers around House's wrist, she pulled him aside, "House, my mom is sick. She doesn't ... she won't want to see you here."

"Wilson's lunch date is with your sister." House grinned, knowing the comment would shut up Cuddy, and he tugged his arm free of her grasp. "I knew that would get your attention." He smirked at her, "He told me that he was driving to Midtown for lunch. Either he had a patient who couldn't drive down to Princeton to see him, or it was someone who he didn't want me to know about."

"That ... that doesn't mean ... Julia wouldn't ... that's not ... House, I'm serious." Cuddy stumbled around her sentences, trying to picture her sister with House's best friend, and she looked up at him. "She just ... Anthony and her haven't even ... the divorce isn't even finalized yet." She frowned at him, "House, there's no way in hell...Julia wouldn't dare."

"Fine," House snapped, trying to keep the tone light, "Then, in the mean time, I'm going to talk to your mother about how much you're screwing up your life."

"The hell...?" Cuddy's mood switched, and she stared at him, her eyes wide. "How in the hell can you lecture me about screwing up my life? If I'm not mistaken, you're the king of screwing up. Not only your own life, but the lives of everyone around you." She bit the inside of her cheek, "You manipulate everyone around you into thinking that you're the only one who matters, and anything else is completely immaterial."

Biting her lip, Cuddy looked up at him, finding herself almost amused with the notion of them arguing in a hospital that wasn't theirs over their relationship. "There's no easy way of putting this, House, but you need to realize that not everyone wants to devote every waking minute of their time to your life. I've changed my life and moved on, Wilson's trying to move on again, and you're stuck living in the past. Everyone wants to find their own happiness; Wilson, your whole team ... even me, but in the end, we're always running back to you because you can't take care of yourself."

"You choose that." House muttered, and he brushed past her, "You don't need to come running after me every single time, but you do anyways. I don't ask you to do a single goddamn thing for me anymore Cuddy. You're not my girlfriend anymore." His gaze flickered between her eyes, and he let out a long sigh. "You pick, either you live with the fact that you need me in your life, or you stop chasing after ghosts."

Limping away from her, House headed back towards the hospital room that Arlene had been assigned to, and he pushed open the door. Without waiting for a reaction, he stepped into the room, locking Cuddy from the conversation, and he rested his hands on the foot of the bed, looking up.

"What do you ... oh." Arlene's reaction was much more dialed down than House had expected, and he caught a flicker of a smile across her lips as she caught his eye. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you were checked in here." House began slowly, trying to decode just how much the Cuddy daughters had told their mother. "Your doctors have every right to know what they're getting into with your as their patient." He nodded to where her medical file from Princeton-Plainsboro was tucked into her medical charts, "You ever ask Cuddy how this got here?"

"My medical charts?" Arlene smirked, already knowing where House was going, "I know she saw you, she told me herself that she drove to Princeton to get them. Just because you and her think that I pay more attention to Julia than her doesn't mean that I don't care." She paused, rubbing her hand above the IV port, "It's not exactly a surprise either, you know. She never had the heart to move out of Princeton, even when Julia and I both suggested it was a good idea." Pausing again, she looked up at House, a faint smile appearing on her lips, "I think she knew that she wanted Rachel to have a stable living environment."

"Funny," House started, "I never expected you to be one to think of Cuddy caring for her daughter."

"There more to me than you know House. You'll learn that," Arlene paused, "In time."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry if there's any typos, I'm updating from my iPad. But enjoy!<strong>

**Reena x**


	8. Part VIII

**Return**

**AN: Hai. Here's part eight. Sorry it took so long, I barely had time to write while in Paris, and then I've been cleaning and unpacking ever since I got back. So in apologies for the long wait, I think I have a good chapter which involves making fun of Foreman as Dean of Medicine****. I also feel bad, I noticed there were some typos and such on part seven, which I'll go through and fix. I will never update via my iPad again, I promise!**

**Also, a quick note that I have eight weeks of high school, so I'm expecting myself to be pretty busy, but I'll keep writing and updating.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part VIII<span>

For nine in the morning on a weekend, the clinic was empty, and the three doctors on staff who had been hoping to waste some time there were pacing anxiously around. Doctors Chase and Adams were hidden more off to one side of the clinic, in hopes that neither House or Foreman would spot them and direct their attention back to their patient. The two of them had their heads bent together slightly, and they kept their eyes on the door, ready to duck into exam rooms in case they could avoid work.

"What's she doing back here?" Jessica Adams nodded to where the clinic doors swung open, and she glanced at Chase, who's mouth was wide open in shock, "She stopped by House's office almost a week ago and now … she's going to see Foreman?" Waving as the woman looked at her, Adams nudged her shocked coworker in the side.

"I … what … morning Cuddy." Chase managed, his mouth still half open and he waved halfheartedly at his former boss. Turning to stare at Adams, he narrowed his eyes at her, "What are you talking about Adams? Cuddy stopped by House's office last week?"

"Uh, last Wednesday, I think." She paused, "I don't remember exactly. I know it was after House asked me about why I was late to work. The day before the orthopedic office cleared out of the outside diagnostics room." Looking at Chase, she stopped, realizing the whole clinic was watching Cuddy as she headed towards Foreman's office. "Who exactly is she?"

"Our former Dean of Medicine," Chase explained quickly, "She actually left about a year before you were hired here. She and House … well, they used to date before she left the hospital, though I don't know if their breakup and the aftereffects are the only reason behind it. That's only what the hospital rumor mill has generated. Though no one mentions it, House kind of ... well, he drove his car into her dining room the day before she left."

"Oh wow ... well, she's back now." Adams nodded, avoiding mentioning to Chase that she had worked at the prison while House had been there, so she already had a remote idea of what had gone on with House. She turned her gaze to where Foreman ushered Cuddy into his office, and then back to Chase at the sound of their pager beeps, "There's got to be something up if she's back working here without thinking about what happened between her and House." Glancing at her pager, she held it up, "House paged us, let's go."

– _return_ –

Wincing slightly, Cuddy fidgeted with the silver bracelet around her wrist, glancing quietly around the office since she had last set foot in it. She managed a smile as Foreman ushered her back towards where he had arranged recliners in the office, glancing at him. "Morning Foreman." Biting the inside of her cheek, she took a seat, quietly accepting the glass of ice water that he passed her.

"Morning." Foreman took his seat across from her, sliding the paperwork across the table towards her. "I know the hiring team would usually speak to you about this but because of the circumstances, I figured it would only be best if I ended up speaking with you myself." He nodded at the papers in front of the two of them, "I know you applied to work with House, but I'm not exactly sure if that's a good idea considering your history."

"That's what this is about?" Cuddy couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Foreman, I think you're forgetting that House worked _for _me before I quit. I know his work ethics and such, I'm not the kind of person who is going to let his history with me get in the way." She let out a long sigh, "Besides, I'm going to be working with the rest of his team, if they have a problem with me working with House, they're the ones who should go to you about it."

"And they won't," Foreman shot back, eyeing Cuddy, "You know how House works, well then you know that he constantly has his team on a short leash. And the minute they run to complain, he finds a reason to get rid of them. I don't think you get that, this time, if he looses his team, House ends up back in jail. And I don't think any of us want that." He paused, "It's not good for the hospital."

Cuddy straightened up a bit, her eyes narrowed, "And that in itself proves that you don't know House and his team. Sure, you have have been on it, but becoming dean obviously made you forget every aspect of its dynamic." She uncrossed her legs to stare at Foreman a bit harder, "One thing, in case you've forgotten, is that no one had any problem coming to me when they disapproved of House's ethics. And if I'm not mistaken, you did it quiet often. So don't tell me that, unless you ensured that House hired a bunch of cowards for his team, none of them have any decency to deal with a problem when they see one."

"That's ... not ... it doesn't mean anything." Foreman managed, already clear that he was fighting a loosing battle. "His team has changed since you left, they know what's at risk if any of them come to me with problems regarding House. None of them are stupid enough to let House's unethical nature screw up their chances at well-paying jobs." He nodded to the paperwork in front of him, "You can either take the job in the surgery department or leave it."

"I'm not doing either." Cuddy leaned forwards, a smirk forming on her lips, "I applied to work for House, and last time I checked, not everyone is willing to work with him. Besides, if you want less problems with House and his department, you need someone there who is going to be able to control him." She raised an eyebrow at Foreman's face, and she let out a long sigh, "Last time I checked, Wilson told me that you were having more trouble working with House now than you did before you took the job."

"That doesn't mean anything," Foreman began, "You know how House acts, and he hates dealing with authority. No matter who it is, he's not going to stand for it. Having you on his team isn't going to help at all, as a matter of fact, it will probably only make it worse. He knows you, there's no denying that. He'll find ways to get around you and still break the rules."

"Prove it." Cuddy began, her eyes narrowed, "Give me two weeks on House's team, and if you're right, then I'll take the job in the surgical department. If I'm right, then I get to stay on House's team and you'll just accept the fact that I can control him better than you can." She pushed the paperwork back towards Foreman, "And in the mean time, I think the person I should be dealing with is House, not you." Standing, she waited until Foreman looked back at her, "If you want to keep this hospital the way it is, then I suggest you take some hints from me."

Heading from the room, Cuddy flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder, not surprised to see Wilson waiting at the entrance of the clinic. She nodded at him, amusement causing her to smirk a bit more as he followed her towards the elevators, and she turned to look at him. "What are you expecting me to say Wilson?"

"You got the job?" Wilson began as they stepped onto the elevator, "I mean, you got the job working for House?" He blinked at her, ignoring the fact that his pager beeped, and shifted his weight on her feet. "I'd assume so since you're going to his floor...but what did you say to Foreman?"

"I told him the truth." Cuddy began, "He's well aware of the fact that I know how to control House and keep the hospital in check. Now that he's Dean, he knows that keeping House in check means keeping the hospital in check. And with the threat of House going back to jail if someone screws up, I reminded him that House worked for me, and that if anyone knows how to keep him in check, it's me."

"Not to mention the fact that he also still has the hots for you." Wilson blurted out quickly, and Cuddy blushed, "I'm sorry, but I bet that you already knew that Cuddy. He's not exactly discrete when it comes to his attraction towards you."

"I dated him Wilson, I know that." Cuddy rolled her eyes again at Wilson's embarrassment, "Now go find out whatever your pager is telling you and deal with it before Foreman has a cow. He's already pretty miffed that I'm working with House when it's pretty clear he wanted to land me in the surgical department so I'd leave." She half pushed Wilson out of the elevator at the third floor, "I'm sure House will tell you all about what he and I talk about later. Now go do your job."

As the elevator doors slid closed, Cuddy leaned against the back of the elevator, sighing quietly. She knew working with House, and she know controlling House, but one thing she didn't know what exactly how she was going to do both while still being madly in love with him. Their only attempt at a relationship had snowballed, she knew, not only because of their inability to deal with the complications their relationship faced, but also with the fact that they never knew when the other wanted space. But, she also reminded herself that space was one thing that also put strain on their relationship, whenever they were apart, they didn't communicate. And she didn't need to remind herself how miscommunication had screwed up what she had thought was their only chance at a relationship.

"Cuddy." The elevator doors slid open, and as if on cue, House stood in front of her, leaning on his cane. "Foreman told me. Apparently you just can't stay away from me, can you?" He winked at her, ignoring the blush on her cheeks, "Don't worry, I can't stay away from you either."

"Shut up House," Cuddy blushed a bit more, and she looked at him, "I assume that he told you that I'm working for you now?" She took House's silence as a yes and followed him as he limped back to his inner office, her eyes darting quietly to where Chase, Taub, Adams, and another team member who's name she didn't know yet watched her quietly. Biting her lip, she dropped into the oversized chair in House's office, feeling rather at home, and she looked up at him, "Go on and finish up your differential, I can spend some time in here." Smiling a bit as House nodded, she leaned back in the chair, relaxing in how at home she really did feel.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay you guys, I have an honest question for you. I might need to write Dominika into this, only to make the progression of Huddy's relationship more believable, but she is <em>not<em> going to hinder their relationship. Honestly, if she's included in any sort of way, how many people will be opposed to it? **

**I usually wouldn't ask, just cause it's my fanfic and such, but since I'm on the fence about it myself, I wanted to ask you all what you think. (I'm actually debating making her involvement _help_ House and Cuddy if I include her ...)**

**Reena x**


	9. Part IX

**Return**

**AN: Okay, here's a mini filler chapter before more drama-esque themes start. Also, I've decided that I won't be including Dominikia in the story, because she is who she is.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

* * *

><p><span>Part IX<span>

"You can't be serious." James Wilson stood on the front porch, and he eyed the woman in front of him, "There's no way that she just decided that working for House would be best for her. Julia, what did you tell her to say?"

Julia Cuddy rolled her eyes, not surprised to see her sister's ex's best friend on her doorstep, and she ushered Wilson inside the house quietly. "You know, people are going to start wondering why you keep showing up on my doorstep in all hours of the night." She shut the door behind her, "But I'm not really surprised anyways, Lisa said that House does it to her a lot."

"He does?" Wilson hovered awkwardly by the living room, unsure if he should go in and sit down or not, "Funny. Neither of them ever mention that to me, and well, you'd figure that House would say something every now and then. Considering I'm his best friend and all." He rocked back and forth on his feet, "What exactly has she told you about their relationship?"

Laughing, Julia looked at Wilson, her eyebrow raised, "And why do you think that I'm going to tell you everything that my sister's told me? Just because Lisa and I are complete opposites when it comes to relationships doesn't mean that I'm going to be spilling all her secrets to you."

"That isn't what I meant," Wilson began slowly, feeling slightly out of place, "I meant that it doesn't surprise me that House shows up on your sister's doorstep at all hours of the night, he occasionally does the same to me as well." He paused, changing the topic away from House and Cuddy's relationship, "Did she tell you that Foreman caved and gave her the job?"

"Lisa's half-insane going to work for House," Julia nodded, registering Wilson's comments, "I know she wanted to go back to Princeton-Plainsboro, and if she thinks she belongs there, then I'm glad she has a job. But I don't think it made any sense at all for her to work for House. She knows how their relationship turned out last time she tried to let their work dynamics control their personal life too."

"We all know that," Wilson nodded, "But she had a good point when she was telling me about it. You know as well as I do that if House screws up this time then he'll end up back in jail, and now that Cuddy isn't dean there anymore, she can't keep covering up his mistakes. And there's no way in hell that Foreman is going to let House's mistakes ruin his so-called reputation." He sat down on one of the plush chairs in the living room, looking at Julia, "If Cuddy ends up working on House's team, then it's the only shot she will have to possibly repair their relationship."

"So basically you're making Lisa at fault if anything goes wrong?" Julia raised her eyebrows at Wilson, surprised, "Because if you are, then you must be seriously mistaken. After all, we've spent this whole time trying to convince the both of them that they can make a relationship work, and if you're expecting House to do whatever the hell he wants while my sister is responsible for everything, then I'm not sure if I want them to get back together."

"That's the exact opposite of what I want," Wilson protested, "I know that House knows Cuddy better than anyone else at that hospital, and vice versa. Without Cuddy working with him, House is going to back to being his own careless self, and he _will_ find a way to screw up and land himself back in jail. I'm certainly not expecting Cuddy to force House to change, but I know him, and if he knows that him trying to control his behavior might help repair their relationship, then he will."

"I'm not so sure about that," Julia nodded quietly, "House doesn't change, at least according to everything that Lisa has ever told me about him. There's no proof that the two of them working together again is suddenly going to change his work ethics, especially if it's the kind of thing that he knows how to get away with without being caught."

"He will get caught," Wilson interrupted, "Foreman isn't letting anything slip by him. I know you don't know the dynamics there like both Cuddy and I do, but there's no way that he's going to make it a year without screwing up and landing himself back in jail." He paused, "I want them to work out their relationship as much as you do, but I'm not willing to risk House landing himself back in jail."

"What about that mail-order bride, or whatever the hell she was...?" Julia narrowed her eyes, "There's no way in hell that Lisa is going to consider repairing any more of her relationship with House if she's still around."

"Oh ... uh, Dominika." Wilson nodded, making a face at the thought, "She left. I don't really know what her story was, but I guess she left around the time House went to jail. I don't know exactly where she is now, or what she's doing about her green card, because last time I checked, she never left the country." He let out a long sigh, "All the better for him, in reality. Keeping that fake marriage up would have taken a toll on all of us."

"No shit," Julia mumbled, "You should have seen Lisa when she came back from that thing. She looked worse than I'd ever seen her." She paused, not sure how much she should tell Wilson, "I was surprised she stayed around after that, to be quite honest with you. She was beyond hurt and pissed off at him."

"What's done is done." Wilson cut her off, not wanting to get into the debate over House and Cuddy's past history. He paused, hesitating, "Can we change the topic? It's not our business to muddle into their relationship, you know, before they even get back into one."

"What makes you think it's _not_ our business James?" Julia snapped quickly, cutting him off, "You're well aware that this is my sister we're talking about. No matter what, I am always going to waiting for her to get hurt. Especially when I know exactly how her side of the fallout from hers and House's relationship ended last time." She paused, embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I know you're just as concerned about the fallout as I am, and I know exactly what happens if they screw up again. You didn't see Lisa's side of the fallout, and it's not something I ever want to put her or Rachel through that again."

Wilson nodded, stuck between agreeing and uncertainty on what Julia was getting at, "I guess you do have a point there, and if House takes it as hard as he did last time, they're both going to be a mess." He paused, in thought, "I don't want them to deal with that kind of emotional turmoil again."

"Neither of us do," Julia stood and reached for a glass of water that she had abandon earlier, "And I don't think that either of them are going to let themselves screw that relationship up again." She tipped the glass back until the ice clinked against her teeth, her eyes meeting Wilson's, "But you're probably right, at least in some way, we need to wait until something happens in their relationship, or currently lack of one." The ice clinked again and she glanced down at the bottom of the Waterford glass, "Tell me, why the hell do you keep sticking around here? And by here, I mean put up with House all this time? If it were me, I never would have been able to deal with his antics the way both you and Lisa do."

"Who knows." Wilson gave a slightly noncommittal shrug, and he leaned back against the couch, looking up at Julia. "I guess I know what the fallout will be if I do end up walking away from him. You know, just as well as your sister and I do, that House is not the kind of guy who you want to end up lost and alone with a pile of negative emotions." He paused, "Not to mention any sort of drugs, medication or anything similar."

"True," Julia paused, dropping onto the opposite end of the couch, nodding a bit, "I know, well, last time, Lisa was scared to death that if she let House back into her life after he went back on the drugs, then it wouldn't be good for Rachel to be around. She's crazy about him, she always has been, and I know that if she knew she had control over House, as well as his habits, then she never would have left. Never." She bit her lip, hesitating as Wilson looked up at her, "I never knew Lisa's personality as as well as I thought I did until this past year or so, but that doesn't mean I haven't expected myself to learn about her."

"I never said that," Wilson began, eyeing Julia quietly, "I know both of them, and they both had problems in their relationship before. It just wasn't one thing either, I know that. But I also know that those problems aren't going to vanish, no matter how much time has gone by, and if they can't accept each other, then we're wasting our time."

"You mean that my sister is wasting House's time," Julia suggested, "We all blame her, hell, Lisa even blames herself for their relationship falling apart before. She wasn't thinking, and she knows that. She knows who House is, and something changed in those few months when she was with him, that for some reason, she couldn't accept the man she always knew." She stopped, seeing Wilson nod in agreement, "We're all right about that one, but none of us can change it."

"Then maybe we don't have to." Wilson stood, moving towards the door. "Maybe all we need to do is allow the both of them to realize that they can accept each other's faults and maintain a healthy relationship." He stopped, looking at Julia as he changed the topic, "Oh, and by the way, did you know both Cuddy and House are convinced that we're seeing each other?"

"I ... what? How ... since when?" Julia raised an eyebrow, more in shock that her sister would assume that she would jump back into a relationship only days after her and her ex husband's divorce had been finalized. "Why in the world do they think ... we're together?"

"Maybe because we're spending all our free time talking, mostly discussing them, but we're still spending all our free time talking." Wilson gave a shrug, "And not to mention the fact that you don't seem surprised to see me on your doorstep probably only helps their case." He headed towards the door, enjoying the stunned expression on Julia's face, "Don't worry, I told them that they're wrong about us."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Whoa guys, I'm on a roll, in all honesty, part ten is almost half done already. But, because I like to keep a pattern, I most likely won't update until April 22nd. (I'd update Saturday night, but I'm going to see Daughtry and Safetysuit in concert so I'll be busy.) <strong>

**Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Reena x**


	10. Part X

**Return**

**AN: Okay, usually I try and use my medical research book in order to make DDX scenes accurate, but since I'm at school and my book is back in my bedroom, I'm going off of my own knowledge. (Which is somewhat lacking in the medical department currently.) But in this chapter, I know exactly what I'm talking about.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

* * *

><p><span>Part X<span>

Jessica Adams twirled the red pen through her hair, her gaze cast towards where Lisa Cuddy sat across the glass table from her. She leaned back in her seat, watching the slightly older woman thumb through the case file on the desk, drumming her free hand on the table top.

"You know, it would be a lot easier if you just told me what tests you've run so far," Lisa Cuddy looked up from the file, her eyes meeting Adams, "It would make it a lot easier for me to actually be of use."

"That's not what the rest of the team had to do," Adams replied back quietly, "Besides, according to both Chase and Taub, you're good at picking up details, which, knowing House, we all missed." She crossed her legs under the table, straightening up to look back at Cuddy, "So why did you come back?"

"Excuse me?" Cuddy asked, thrown by the question. "I don't see how that's any of your business, unless of course, you're suddenly in charge around here."

"I never said that," Adams shrugged, leaning back in the chair, "But the rest of the team wasn't exactly secretive about your past with House. And if you ask me, crawling back to him isn't exactly what I expected of you."

"You don't know anything about me." Cuddy snapped quickly, her eyes narrowed, her gaze turning towards the door as it swung open, and she bit her lip. "Hi."

Chase, Taub and Park exchanged glances, still processing their internal shock of the fact that their boss was now working, not only with them, but with House as well. The first one to speak was Chase, and he dropped into the seat besides Cuddy, looking sideways at her, "Morning Cuddy."

"Morning," Taub's voice was mumbled, "Are you getting updated on the case?"

"Yeah," Cuddy nodded at the files, "I have to admit, it surprises me that with such an irregular heartbeat, you haven't tested for any heart disease yet." She pulled one of the papers from the file, "I don't know if you all missed it, but she made no previous reports of an irregular heartbeat until two days before she was admitted."

"You mean check for amyloidosis?" Chase cut her off, "That was usually Foreman's go to idea, and frankly, we never got anything when he suggested it. I've always believed that it was a waste of time if the patients got to House anyways." He took the paper from Cuddy's hand, skimming it, "I'm not saying we can rule it out, but we should definitely tell House that it's a possibility." Looking around, he stopped, "It's almost eleven, where is House?"

"Right here." Pointing, Park looked oddly proud of herself as House limped into the room, and she dropped into the only free chair besides Adams, "We were just talking about the case when you got here."

"Clearly," House scanned the room, his gaze lingering slightly at where Cuddy and Chase had their heads bent together over the medical files, "That's what you're all paid to do, isn't it?" He let his cane clatter against the side of the table and he took the open seat opposite Taub, his gaze on both Cuddy and Chase, "Have something you two would like to share with the class?"

"Amyloidosis." Cuddy looked up, her eyes meeting House's. "It fits." She looked from him to the white board, "Irregular heartbeat, that's self explanatory. Bruising, that can be a symptom that very few doctors pick up on right away, along with the hair loss and weakness. It also explains the obvious fatigue if there's cardiac involvement, along with the swelling." Stopping, she blushed faintly, aware that every gaze in the room was on her.

"Wh...where did you get all that from?" Taub stared at his former boss, "There's no way that all this could actually be amyloidosis. Besides, you must have missed the note in the file, but the patient had jaundice-like symptoms when she was admitted, that doesn't explain cardiac involvement."

"It can if other organs are involved," House nodded, looking up at Cuddy with a faint smile on his face, "Park, Taub - you two go get a cardiac and liver biopsy. Chase, you go see if you can get anything more from her. And Adams, you take this and call them." He passed her a sheet of paper, "He's the closet cardiac amyloidosis specialist, see if he's ever heard of our patient before." Watching both groups go, he waited until Adams and Cuddy remained at the table, slightly amused.

"Why isn't she doing anything?" Adams asked, not bothering to budge from her seat, and both House and Cuddy stared at her. The rest of the team stood in front of the door, looking at the three seated at the table, and Adams went on. "I'm certainly not going to spend my time running tests for diagnoses that I don't even believe in when she's sitting around here doing nothing. I have much better things to do around here, and if you start playing favorites just because she's back means that I can use my time to head down to Foreman's office."

"Listen," House began, his anger obvious, "You work for me. And unless you want me to tarnish your reputation like I've done to everyone else who's worked under me, I'd suggest you get a move on to make those phone calls. If not, then I will make sure that you don't find another job."

"House...I can do something," Cuddy cut him off, knowing his threats, though seemingly harmless in the end, would actually worsen the situation. She glanced to where Adams was glaring at her out of the corner of her eye, "It's not a problem." Nodding at the papers in front of Adams, "Besides, it would go a lot faster if I took half of those contacts and made some calls too." Biting her lip, she paused, knowing her argument was useless; when House didn't want anyone involved, he made sure of it.

House leaned over, picking up the papers and placed them unceremoniously in Adams' lap, looking between the two women. "Look Adams, I gave you a job. You can either go do it or go run to Foreman and complain while our patient gets worse." He narrowed his eyes, "Besides, unless you think it's a good idea to sit around and do nothing, I suggest you do your job."

Adams sniffed irritably, rising and shoving the papers under her arm, "Don't be surprised if Foreman finds out about this." She stood in the doorway, her eyes darting between House and Cuddy, a glare in her eyes. "You may have the rest of your team already wrapped around your finger," she stopped to stare at Cuddy, "But that doesn't include me." Striding from the room, both House and Cuddy watched Adams brush past the rest of the team, who lingered by the elevators, ensuring that she was the first person on.

"She's going to talk to Foreman about this," Cuddy stood, collecting her file under her arm, "But she's right, I need to go do something useful around here. And frankly, sitting around your office all day isn't exactly what I have in mind." She stopped as House rested his hand on her arm, and she tensed, waiting, "Yes?"

"I have something for you to do." House began, nodding to the medical textbooks on the shelf, "I need you to go through the books, track down the highest ranked cardiac hospitals along the east coast. Call up the departments, and see if there's any chance that our patient decided that she could double-dip her treatments." He pulled the file from under Cuddy's arm, opening it, "Her protein levels are high enough to indicate amyloidosis, but there's no way, assuming she's telling the truth about how long she's hand her symptoms, that she has been able to reduce her numbers."

"You think she's falsifying medical records at two hospitals?" Cuddy raised an eyebrow, "That's unlikely, unless of course she has help from someone here or at another hospital." She glanced to the medical textbooks, "And why should I bother going through the textbooks? The internet is much faster these days, especially with her location. If there's any possibility that she's going between two hospitals, there's no way she'd be likely to go anywhere that takes more than a certain amount of driving time per day." She set the file back on the table, "And why me?"

"Because you're good," House nodded slowly, "You don't make mistakes like the rest of my team do."

"That's not true." Cuddy began, pulling the laptop towards her, "I've had my fare share of screw ups as a doctor, you know that." She resettled herself in the chair, hoping to change the subject, "And why haven't you told the rest of your team about your suspicions?"

"Because I don't trust them," House began, "They're going to follow the rules, even if it means ratting me out to Foreman." He paused to look at her, "I know you, and I trust you. You're not going to risk ratting me out to Foreman, especially when we both know what that could lead to."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, this chapter was incredibly hard for me to write, just cause I have a specific case file from Dr. Rodney Falk at Boston Medical Center's Cardiac Research Center that I'm using for information on the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac amyloidosis (as well as personal experience). But I hope it was good enough anyways!<strong>

**Reena x**


	11. Part XI

**Return**

**AN: This chapter felt kind of off to me, but maybe that's cause I actually started it on Monday, and now that we know about Wilson, it was kind of hard to go back to. I'm also unsure if I'm going to put that storyline into this (assuming I get that far into the current storyline), but as of now, I'm leaning towards no.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XI<span>

Wilson looked up, half-expecting his quiet lunch to be interrupted by his friend, and he almost choked on the half of chicken sandwich. He swallowed, half startled, "So, how's your first day going on House's team?"

Lisa Cuddy dropped into the seat opposite the oncologist, and she let out a long sigh, running her fingers through her hair slowly. She bit her lip, "I'm screwed, Adams hates me already, and I bet the rest of them all do too. I don't know ... if Adams attracted to him or something, but she threatened to rat me out to Foreman because House didn't give me anything to do involving the patient in front of the team. He told me after they all left that he wants me to do more research, since he knows my name will have more power, and that he doesn't trust his team because he knows they could end up ratting him out to Foreman. And I don't know if I even fit in this job, but I just love working with him again and it makes me think he and I might have a chance again but ..."

"Whoa, back up." Wilson held up his hand, his surprise fading as Cuddy's rambling sunk in, and he let himself smile a bit. "You _think_ that the rest of the team hates you because you and House understand how the two of you work?" He raised an eyebrow, pointing the top of his soda can towards Cuddy, "You, Lisa Cuddy, are jealous."

"I am not," Cuddy began quickly, blushing faintly at her words, "I just need to make sure that I can be accepted, you know, by the rest of the team. Though I'm not sure, I bet Chase and Taub already have accepted me somewhat, just since they know why I'm here. But, at least that I can tell, the rest of the team doesn't know."

Wilson nodded, understanding, and he paused, "So you think that House's team is going to reject your input just because of the fact that you dated House?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at her, "Or because they all know that you left Princeton-Plainsboro and think that this is your way of crawling back to him. Which, to be completely honest, as soon as anyone who knows your relationship without knowing the intimate details of it, that is exactly what everyone is going to think about the two of you."

"Look, I love him." Cuddy started, "I know it sounds insane, especially for you since you know everything that he and I have been through. But that only makes me love him more. I know he and I have way too many problems in our past that we'll never be able to change, and everything is probably going to change how our future is together. But I love him Wilson, and nothing is going to stop me from making sure everyone knows that."

She took a breath, pausing, and she bit her lip nervously, "I know it makes me look weak, and probably somewhat idiotic, that I think I can go back to him and be happy. But behind all the lies, arguments and miscommunication that we had last year, I was happy with him. I know it sounds insane, but knowing that I could run to him, no matter what happened made me feel safe." Glancing away, her voice dropped to a whisper as she went on, "I think that's why I ended it before, I though that I had lost him for good, and that I wouldn't ever be able to force myself to change him to be the man who he was when he and I were first together."

"You're insane, you know that, right?" Wilson smiled a bit, knowing that Cuddy wouldn't give in, "You practically admitted that all you and House did was argue, but you want to be with him again. That's the exact reason that I know Sam and I could have never worked out, we both loved each other, but we had changed. I'm not saying you two don't have another shot at this, but you two both need to be able to fix what went wrong last time." He hesitated, looking at Cuddy, "And you should know, he's back on Vicodin."

"I ... I ... oh," Cuddy swallowed, standing, her mind racing as she remembered the last time she had seen him on the drug. "Thanks for uh ... telling me Wilson." She nearly ran from the room, her eyes wide as she rounded the corner, lost in her thoughts, and she flinched backwards as she collided into House.

"Going somewhere?" He stepped back, holding onto her arms for support, and House eyed her quietly, "Bothering Wilson? That's my job." Missing the smile plastered on her face, House managed to earn one of Cuddy's famous stares, before going on, "I saw you called those doctors earlier, good job."

"Wh...what?" Cuddy raised an eyebrow, looking at him, "You never compliment your team." Her mind raced, away from the notion that the love of her life was back on the drug that had been the breaking point in their relationship the first time and towards the idea of House's indirect flattery, "Unless you've changed since we last worked together. But I know you House, you don't think people change, even more so that _you_ can't change." She smiled, pleased at how well she knew him, "But you know just how much I think that you're wrong."

House nodded, unsure of what part of Cuddy's statement he was supposed to respond to, and he hesitated, unsure of how to change topics yet again. "Adams squealed to Foreman about our little chat earlier, apparently you need to tell the team what you had to call about."

"Excuse me?" Cuddy raised an eyebrow at House, almost challenging him like old times, "You're the one with the suspicions in your head that she's somehow conning two hospitals into medical treatments, as well as all her medications, you have to tell them. I'm just the messenger between your team and wherever else she could possibly be treated." Shrugging a bit, she looked at him, "It might take awhile yet, I've still got a call into Boston about her."

"English men." House rolled his eyes, "He's probably sitting around enjoying tea and cookies while I deal with her." He paused, earning an eye roll from Cuddy, before going on, "Ironic isn't it, the world famous diagnostician going to the world famous cardiac specialist for help."

"Not if you think she's conning both of you for medications and treatments," Cuddy smiled a bit at House's pride at his "world famous" status, and she nodded to House's office, "You know, if you actually want to keep this quiet, we should talk in your office. I looked at her charts again, and I'm not exactly sure if we're right. I know you always think you're right House, but I'm not sure about this time." She curled her fingers around his arm and half dragged him back to the inner office, tiny sparks shooting through her as her fingers brushed the cotton blue shirt.

House turned to look at her as soon as they were in the office, and as if testing the waters, he withdrew the Vicodin bottle from his pocket quietly. He kept his eyes on Cuddy as he opened the bottle, shaking three of the pills into his hand, the sound echoing through the room. Recapping the bottle, he returned it to his jeans pocket, knowing that both him and Cuddy were waiting for the first one to say something, and he blinked at her as he dry swallowed the pills.

"How's ... the pain?" Cuddy asked, her voice shaking, and the change in her voice from a few minutes ago was noticeable. She bit the inside of her cheek, unsure if she truly wanted House to answer her, and she cracked her thumb knuckle to distract herself from the uncomfortable silence between the two of them.

"Recovering." House nodded slowly, not daring to make eye contact with Cuddy, almost as if she would walk away from him now that she knew he hadn't been able to stay clean again.

"I know, Wilson told me." Cuddy began softly, moving forwards to squeeze House's arm, "I was telling him, about earlier, with Adams and somehow we started talking. And then, in the end, it ended up leading to us discussing you and well, I guess he figured that he should mention that you hadn't stopped ... it." She paused, "I don't know if I'll be able to look at you, knowing this, and not think of the past. But it doesn't mean I have to condemn our friendship again."

"Last time, it was our relationship _and_ our friendship." House started, and the honesty in his words seemed to make both him and Cuddy shiver, "Now, all we have to loose is our slowly healing friendship."

"Along with your reputation, medical license and possibly any chance at getting another job," Cuddy reminded him, "You know Foreman is going to be watching you, and we both know that he expects you to screw up either in your life or in any of your cases. And if it means loosing you, there is no way in hell that I am going to let him know that. I came back here specifically to work with you and I ..." Stopping, Cuddy blushed; now it was her turn to avoid House's curious gaze, "Just, thank you."

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><p><strong>AN: Okay, the ending especially felt weird to me, though I couldn't find a good way to finish the scene off without dragging it on. But in all honesty, I started working again, so I've been at schoolwork from 7 AM to 6 PM the past two days. And considering the fact that I have 31 days of school left, I'm also busy with end of year studying and such. I hope you all still enjoyed it anyways.**

**Reena x**


	12. Part XII

**Return**

**AN: New chapter, still no idea where this story is going, but here it is. Also, sorry it took more time than usual, I was overloaded this past week with work and school stuff. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XII<span>

Foreman paced back and forth, awkwardly circling the small office quietly, his arms folded across his chest. From the desk in the center of the room, both House and Cuddy looked up at him, just as quiet as he was. On the other side of the glass wall; Robert Chase, Chris Taub, Jessica Adams and Chi Park watched quietly, waiting for the situation to unfold.

"I hope the two of you realize how incredibly poor this looks for both of you right now." Foreman began, not bothering to stop pacing the small space in front of House's desk. "The two of you should both know better than to play favorites on your team, especially so quickly after you started together together _again_." He put extra stress on the last word and stopped to look at Cuddy, his eyes slightly narrowed. "You told me that you knew exactly what you were doing when you asked to work with House. If you can't, I can easily transfer you into another department."

"It's not a big deal, really," Cuddy began quietly, "I was doing some background research on the patient. House spoke with me about it privately because he knew my credentials would have more weight than anyone else on his team. He didn't want the rest of them to feel like he was using me because he underestimated them, or that he trusts my medical opinion over any of theirs." She bit her lip, seeing Adams roll her eyes on the other side of the glass, and she let out a sigh, "I know it looks bad, but if it wasn't going to help the patient, then I wouldn't have done it."

House nodded slowly, playing off Cuddy's version of the story, watching her as she went on. "Besides, I figured that House didn't want to send in another doctor to deal with the patient. I mean, hell, we all know how serious cardiac amyloidosis is, and the last thing any patient with it needs is doctors crawling all over them. If I stayed in the background, and didn't personally interact with the patient, then it would only be less stressful for them." She paused, "Sure it looks back professionally, but I care about getting the patient better, and putting more stress on them isn't going to help."

"She has a point." House interrupted, looking at Foreman. "Besides, I already have four other team members dealing with the woman on a daily basis, there's no need to throw another into the mix when she could be doing other work." He paused, "Besides, we only got more answers about the case, so I don't see why it's any of your concern."

"Because you went over my head to get confidential patient records from another hospital!" Foreman snapped, annoyed, and he turned to look at Cuddy. "You know as well as any of us do that any sort of personal records need to go through me before they get fazed to departments. Instead, the two of you thought you could do it without consulting me, not to mention the rest of the team you're working with. That's a recipe for disaster, and I don't think either of you need to be reminded on what exactly that entails."

"We got what we needed Foreman," Cuddy cut him off, her eyes narrowed, "And for your information, there's no law that prevents doctors consulting one another about patients that may have possibly been treated at their facilities before. Last time I checked, that only applies to personal records, which we didn't need to ask for." She stopped, waiting until House gave her a nod to continue, "I don't need to ask anyone's permission to talk to anyone, do I?"

"You go girl," House mumbled, his comment overheard by Foreman, as well as his team, and he looked away from Cuddy. "Without her help, we wouldn't be able to do our jobs. So instead of getting ticked off because Cuddy just happened to outwit you, you should leave and let us do our jobs."

Foreman opened his mouth to protest, but finding no argument with House's statement, he nodded quietly. "You need to make sure to include your entire team in discussions from now on, not just the ones who you know will do your bidding without a second's hesitation." He glanced at where Cuddy sat quietly, before turning on his heel and marching from the room, leaving the six doctors to stare after him quietly.

Robert Chase was the first into the inner office, and he eyed Cuddy quietly as he dropped into the other seat opposite House's desk. He stared at the scribbled notes in Cuddy's handwriting on the desk, then back to her, then to House, trying to put the pieces together. "You think she's already been treated for amyloidosis?"

"I know so." Cuddy replied quietly, "The protein levels in her blood didn't fit with her other symptoms, so I figured that the only way that her condition could have improved but still held a timeframe of six months was if she was already being treated at another hospital." She gave a shrug, ignoring Adams' gaze on her, "House suggested that I try calling up the nearest and best cardiac hospitals on this coast, and we got a hit from Boston."

"She's being treated under two names?" Adams asked, surprised, "How the hell can you prove that without getting her previous records?" She looked between House and Cuddy, waiting for a tell, "That seems impossible to figure out without any medical evidence."

"I asked if there was anyone with her last name, and it turns out, there's a Marianne Watson who comes in twice a month from treatment. And now, unless the patient in our hospital has an identical twin named Marianne, then Josephine is also Marianne." Cuddy paused, looking up at the rest of House's team, "Has she had anyone named Marianne visit her?"

"Watson is a common last name," Taub began, hesitant, "How can we be sure that it's the same woman? I'm not saying I doubt what Cuddy and House found out, but Adams has a point, there's no way we can prove that it's the same woman without medical evidence."

"So we can get some." Park and Cuddy spoke at the same time, then looked at each other, waiting.

"Good idea," House sat up, apparently suddenly fascinated with the fact that Taub and Adams seemed to suddenly disagree on every aspect of the case because of Cuddy's prominent role in it. He nodded to the two other men in the room, "Chase, you and Park go see if you can coax Foreman into getting a medical release into our patient's records from Boston. Taub, you and Adams go and see if you can get the patient to crack about their secret life."

"Ahem." Adams gave a dry cough, looking pointedly at Cuddy, "And what about you?" She stared at House, waiting for him to speak, "If you're going to keep defying Foreman and play favorites, then I'll go and deal with him instead."

"I wasn't done." House interrupted, not letting Adams finish her tirade on his favoritism of Cuddy. "I'm sending Cuddy down to the lab so she can retest the patient's protein levels, then by the time we get those records from Boston, we'll be able to check and see if there's an accurate comparison." He stared back, waiting for Adams to relent her anger, and he nodded, "Scram."

Cuddy stood, leading the way out of the office; Taub, Park and Adams following suit - neither of them daring to speak to one another as they headed to their respective places. Hesitating, Robert Chase hovered in the doorway between the two offices, his gaze on the man who he had come to see as a mentor.

"Why are you doing this House?" Chase began, "You and Cuddy are only making this harder for the rest of us by going behind our backs. I know you two have a history together, but you can't let that drag into the professional dynamics of the team." He paused, "Do you still love her?"

"Why is that relevant?" House looked up at his team member, his expression neutral, "I got information on the patient, and now Foreman is going to cave since it's going to save the patient's ass in the end, and everyone is happy." He leaned back,"My methods on how I got the information aren't important anymore."

"It will be when the patient starts asking questions," Chase replied, his expression understanding, "I'm not saying she isn't hot, we all know that, but you can't let your relationship control the entire team."

"It doesn't need saying Chase," House stood, "Now go do your job before I find Cuddy and get her to do it instead." He limped over to look at Chase, giving him a hard stare before heading from the office, leaving Chase alone, quietly confused.

"Willlllson!" House called, limping towards his friend's office, and he pushed open the door, staring up as his friend hung up the phone. He made his way across the room, sitting on the familiar couch again, "Who are you talking to?"

"Nobody," Wilson lied, and he looked up at his friend, curious. "I heard you and Cuddy already got Foreman pissed off - really House? The two of you need to ..."

"I love her." House cut him off, "And I can't work with her."

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><p><strong>AN: Okay, sorry for the cliffhanger, but this week shouldn't be too bad, school wise, so I can go back to my regular update schedule.<strong>

**Reena x**


	13. Part XIII

**Return**

**AN: To make up for the cliff hanger, I made sure I wrote a chapter that I really hope you'll love. I skipped ahead in time a bit, so it's roughly a month since the events in chapter one took place, but don't worry, nothing major happened. (Or else I would have written about it.)**

**And, I'm sorry it took so long - according to my doctor, working in a daycare means I'll get sick about once a month, so I now have another sinus infection. Also, I'm sorry this is kind of short, but let's leave it at the fact that I'm more depressed than usual, plus also have five weeks left of school and also becoming remotely suicidal again. So yeah. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XII<span>I

_About two weeks later..._

Julia Cuddy stood in front of the full-length mirror, running her hands over her bare arms, her head cocked to one side as she admired herself. "Are you sure this a good idea?" She listened quietly, her sister's rummaging in the walk-in closet not encouraging her, "Lisa, this isn't a good idea." Confirming her thoughts, she reached up and ran her fingers through her hair, "I don't know James, and I don't even work there, I wouldn't fit in."

"You're my sister," Lisa Cuddy reappeared from the closet, her brunette hair curled into thick ringlets, and she smiled a bit as she held up a pink floor length dress. "And you know House and Wilson, you'll be fine." She pushed the dress into her sister's hands, a smile on her lips, "Besides, you're going to need a date for tonight."

"You ... you don't have on either." Julia argued quietly, taking the dress from her sister and holding it up to herself, "How is me going with James ... no." She stopped, turning in a circle to stare at her younger sister, "You aren't. No, you and House are going together?" Her eyes widened in shock as Cuddy nodded, and she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't imagining the scene before her.

"I told him we were going as friends, and that you'd certainly be happy to go with Wilson so he doesn't turn into the third wheel again." Smiling a bit, Cuddy ran her fingers over the waistline of her own dress, and she dropped onto the edge of her sister's bed, "Come on Jules, I made sure mom could take of the kids tonight specifically because I know how much you like Wilson." She toed her feet into her heels, glancing up as her sister let out a long sigh, "And I know Wilson is going to be disappointed if you don't show."

Julia Cuddy rolled her eyes, making a face at her sister as she held the pink dress up to her body again, then let out a sigh. "Lisa, there is no way in hell I'm wearing this dress. There's a side-slit that probably reaches mid-thigh, I don't want to make it seem like I'm _trying_ to get his attention. I just want to enjoy an evening with him, as friends." She added quickly, seeing Cuddy look up, "I can't wear this."

"Unless you're going to wear your wedding dress, then you're wearing it Julia." Lisa Cuddy mimicked her sister's eye roll, "You deserve a break from all this stress you've had to deal with, a night off will be good for you." She stood, glancing around the room, "You best be lucky that I already insisted on doing your hair earlier, I know I told House and Wilson to pick us up at six forty-five. That's in five minutes, so unless you're going to stay home alone and be lonely, then you need to get changed."

"I hate you sometimes," Julia mumbled, disappearing into the bathroom with the dress, and as the door clicked, she let out an audible squeal.

"I knew it," Cuddy called, fiddling with the silver heart pendant around her neck, and she smiled a bit. "You and Wilson aren't exactly so discrete with your meetings." She turned to stare at her reflection in the mirror, eyeing the way a few loose curls framed her face, and she reached for one of the black bobby pins that she had left on the dresser, fastening them to the side of her face. "Besides, I want you to be happy."

"Shut up!" Julia half-shouted from the other side of the bathroom door, then there was another squeal before the door was pulled open. "How the hell did you guess this would still fit me?" She stepped out of the bathroom, a wide smile on her lips, "I don't think I touched this since ... I don't even know when ... some event with Anthony probably." Stopping, she glanced at her sister, "You honestly think this is a good idea?"

"I wouldn't have told Wilson that you'd be happy to come if I didn't think you would," Cuddy eyed her sister as she toed on her own shoes, and she gave a faint smile at her phone, her eyes lighting up a bit. "They're here." The smile on her lips grew as she watched her sister pace nervously around the room, and she let out a faint laugh, amused by how uneasy she suddenly seemed.

"It's not funny." Julia insisted, and she nearly flew from the room as the loud ring of the doorbell echoed through the upstairs hallway. The sound of her heels clicking against the hardwood stairs joined with the echo of the doorbell and, from the top of the stairs, Cuddy watched amused by her sister's sudden embarrassment.

"Evening," House was the one at the door, and Julia stepped back, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks. He stepped into the foyer of the house, looking rather unlike himself in a pressed button down blazer and tie. Looking around, he paused, catching sight of Cuddy at the top of the stairs, and he nodded to her, "Are you both ready to go?" Glancing to Wilson's Volvo on the side of the road, he looked back at the two women, "I think Wilson's scared that we'll end up running late."

Cuddy nodded, heading down the stairs and she blushed as House stared at her before giving him a once-over. "You cleaned up nice for tonight," she paused, missing his usual stubble on his face, "Is there some sort of bet going on with your team about you showing up looking dressed up for a hospital function?" Smiling a bit, she dropped her voice, "I assume that you figured by now that Julia and Wilson are going together."

"The fancy dress was a big hint," House muttered back, and he glanced down as she fiddled with the knot of his tie, "Though he might have also accused you of trying to set them up when we were on our way over here though. But, you also ask me, the fact that he never turned down your offer to bring your sister along is a big hint."

"Stop it," Julia cut their conversation off, her eyes narrowed in mock annoyance, "James and I are nothing more than friends." She fixed her gaze on her sister for a few more seconds, "Besides, wouldn't that only make anything the four of us do into a double date?" Smirking, she swept past Cuddy, ignoring the embarrassment on her face.

"At least we admit we're a nice couple," Cuddy mumbled quietly to herself, and she eyed House's thoughtful gaze out of the corner of her eye. "Are you planning on standing here until both my sister and I get into the car, because if so, we'll just leave you here." She looped her arm through his, gripping on a bit tighter than necessary, "Considering that you and I need to stay on Foreman's good side still, it might be best if you don't stay here."

"Foreman needs to take that stick out of his ass," House remarked as they headed for Wilson's car, "He knows how I work, and letting Adams run to squeal every single time I do something she doesn't approve of is only wrecking my team." He paused, seemingly deep in thought for a few minutes as Cuddy slowed to walk besides her sister, and he raised his voice a bit more for the two of them to overhear him. "I think it's best if I stay up front, you know, more room for my leg."

"Obviously," Cuddy glanced over her shoulder, eyeing him worriedly at the mention of his leg, and she nudged her sister lightly in the side to make sure that she was all right with House's request as well. She stopped besides the passenger side of the car, letting Julia circle around to the opposite side to sit behind Wilson, waiting until House reached the car as well.

"You don't need to wait for me, I'm perfectly capable of getting into a car by myself." House passed Cuddy his fanciest, silver tipped cane as he got into the passenger side seat, and he looked up at her, amused by her embarrassment.

"I know," Cuddy stumbled over her words, climbing into the back seat opposite her sister, and she fiddled with her bracelet to distract herself from her memories.

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><p><strong>AN: Again, I'm sorry it's short, next chapter will be better!<strong>

**Reena x**


	14. Part XIV

**Return**

**AN: Another chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update, last week was pretty crazy in real life, then we went off to a beautiful lake house for the weekend to celebrate a friend's college graduation. The next few weeks might be kind of slow too, considering I'm in my last month of school before graduation.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XIV<span>

By the time Cuddy, Julia, House and Wilson had found a parking spot in the visitors' lot of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, the festivities were already in full swing. Grumbling, House marched slightly ahead of the rest of the group, either too eager to get inside and drink or just eager to make an appearance and leave. "You'd think they'd open up the staff garages for us tonight." He was leaning heavily on his cane, which both Cuddy and Wilson had quietly noted, and occasionally paused to look back at them. "This never happened when you were boss."

"I don't control Foreman's choices," Cuddy rubbed her arms in the crisp early spring air, and she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at the fact that they were arriving so late. Though she assumed House and Wilson had left their respective homes to pick them up, she knew that every minute closer to the start to celebration lessened their chances of finding a parking spot closer to the building. "Though I do have to admit, you're right, he would have saved people a lot more time if he let his own staff park in the hospital's garage."

Julia mumbled in agreement, too distracted with how easily the spring air chilled her, and she looked expectantly to Wilson, as if waiting for her "date" to make the proper move. She knew, right from the start, that she couldn't wait for House to make an example and offer Cuddy his own jacket, so if she wanted Wilson's, she would have to find a way to get it herself. "I should have checked the temperature before I agreed to this."

"It's awfully cold for May," Wilson nodded in agreement, his attention on House as he stopped to look back at the three of them. "I guess it's just not meant to be a hospital fundraiser kind of night." He froze, knowing how easily House was affected by the attention he received when his leg was hurting, then dropped his voice to stare at Julia. "How about you and I can head in since I think House will take longer."

"Of course," Julia smiled a bit, then nervously slipped her arm through Wilson's offered elbow. She blushed a bit as Cuddy winked at her, and she allowed Wilson to steer her away from her sister and House quietly.

- return -

"Are you sure that you're all right?" Cuddy balanced herself on the edge of a park bench outside the hospital, shivering slightly in the cool May air. She winced as House tightened his grasp on her hand, and she reached up to run her free hand against his forehead. "If you want, I can get Wilson's keys and drive you back home."

"It's just a spasm ..." House growled through gritted teeth, "I'll be fine Cuddy." He looked up at her with narrowed eyes, before whipping back around to grip at his leg in pain. Grinding his teeth, he mumbled out a few more jumbled words, "Go ahead ... I can make ... it."

"No." Cuddy insisted, biting the inside of her lip to keep from yelling at him as he tightened his grasp on her hand, "I'm not leaving you out here alone House, no matter what you tell me otherwise." She inched closer to him, trying to pry her hand from his, "Do you need me to call Wilson and have him bring out his keys? I can drive you back home if you really need it."

"I'm fine." House growled again, looking at her, his eyes locking with hers, "Stop pestering me and go inside." He pulled his hands from her grasp and gripped his leg, his eyes screwed shut in pain, and he let out a groan. "God damn leg."

Letting out a long sigh, Cuddy shrugged off her jacket and ran her fingers along House's arm, locking her eyes on his. "I'm going to sit right here with you until your leg stops spasming, and not a minute sooner." She bit her lip again as he opened his mouth to argue, "After all, it was my idea to drag you along to this thing in the end." Stopping, she glanced away as she realized how easily she was guilting herself into making House's injury her fault again, and she let out a long sigh. "Do you need anything?"

"Just go in and enjoy the fundraiser." House grumbled, staring at her, "I didn't ask you or anyone else to force me to come to this thing." He reached for his cane, which leaned against the opposite side of the bench, digging it into the grass besides the walk. Easing himself to his feet, he stared at Cuddy as she chewed on her lip nervously, "See, I'm fine."

"You're not fine," Cuddy argued, standing and grabbing House's arm to help steady him, "I know you." She eased him back onto the bench, her eyes narrowed slightly, "I'm going to go get the car keys and bring you back to your apartment - you don't need to be here if you're going to be in this much pain the whole entire evening." Squeezing his shoulder, she waited until House nodded at her, reluctantly agreeing to her offer, "I will be right back, let me just go track down Wilson first."

Heading into the hospital's main entrance, Cuddy rubbed her hands along her arms, scanning the crowds for Wilson or her sister. Biting her lip, she swerved out of the direct path of both Eric Foreman and Jessica Adams, who seemed engaged in a deep discussion, only to collide into another person.

"Oh, Cuddy!" Robert Chase's surprised voice echoed in her ear, and jumping back, Cuddy blinked at him, blushing. "How are you?"

"Could be better," Cuddy replied quickly, hoping to stay out of sight, "Have you seen Wilson around here ... he just came in. And House, he's not doing well and I'm going to drive him back to his apartment. I know he told me about the deal Foreman made with him, but his leg is acting up ... and yeah, just if you see Wilson, let him know that I'm looking for him." She ducked away before Chase could reply, loosing herself further in the crowds.

Weaving between groups of doctors and benefactors alike, Cuddy couldn't help but feel their eyes on her, and she pressed herself along one of the few empty spaces along the wall. She let out a long sigh, her ringlets slowly unraveling into a messy bout of curls in the heat and energy of the room, and she pressed her fingers to her temple.

"You look stressed." Almost as if on cue, Julia Cuddy appeared at her sister's side, "I saw you come in, though it was almost impossible to follow you through these crowds." She glanced around, half expecting House to appear at her sister's other side, "Where did House end up?"

"I'm taking Wilson's car and driving him home," Pausing, Cuddy scanned the room once more, trying to see if she could spot the oncologist through the crowds, "His leg is acting up and I don't want to force him to limp in here in the state that he's in." She turned to look at her sister, "Have you seen Wilson around? I need to get the keys from him."

"Then how are Wilson and I supposed to get back?" Raising an eyebrow, Julia stared at her sister, "We all took one car, you know."

"I'm coming back," Cuddy replied quickly, "I know House doesn't like other people around him when he's in pain, especially this bad. If he wants me to stay, then I guess we'll have to figure something different out. But since I know him pretty well, he's probably going to insist that I come back here and leave him alone."

"Do you _want_ to leave him?" Julia fished Wilson's car key from her wristlet, dropping it into her sister's hand. "And James gave me the keys, I guess he kind of knew that we'd run into each other first. If you don't come and track me down later, then I guess I'll assume that you stayed at House's." Wincing, she rubbed her arm from where Cuddy smacked it, "Hey, you're the one who's madly in love with him!"

"Shut up," Cuddy rolled her eyes at her sister, "I'll see you and Wilson later." She disappeared off towards the front entrance almost immediately, unsure if she was more in a hurry to get back to check on House, or just to escape the tension she felt whenever she went anywhere near her coworkers in the hospital.

"You're back." House looked up from where he had made himself comfortable leaning on the side of the bench, "I thought that Wilson and your sister were going to drag you into the party." He eyed Cuddy as she dropped onto the bench besides him, "Are you really ditching the whole party just because of me?"

"I'm going to come back," Cuddy reassured House quietly, "I just want to bring you home and make sure you're all right." She reached for his hand and squeezed it, before pulling away, embarrassed, "Do you think you'd mind that if I didn't stay?"

"I'd prefer you didn't," House eased himself onto his feet, his knuckles white as he gripped his cane, and he half-shuffled his feet towards where Wilson had parked the silver Volvo. "I thought that you knew me Cuddy."

"I do," Cuddy moved to catch his arm as they walked back towards the car, "But I also want to make sure that you're going to be all right on your own when you're in this much pain. I'd stay with you if you really felt that you needed it though." She gazed at him, unsure of exactly how he was going to act to her words, and she went on, explaining herself. "I told my sister that she and Wilson would probably be able to find a way to get home if I stayed, or that they could call me if I had to come and get them."

Understanding, House nodded, leaning against Cuddy's side as they headed towards the car, "I always manage."

"I know you do," Cuddy nodded, slightly amused by his choice of words as the car came into view, and she shifted to tighten her hold on House's arm. "I'll make the back seat comfortable, so you can stretch out your leg." She offered, in hopes to get him to calm down before she started driving, "All right House?" Without waiting for a response, she unlocked the car quietly as they reached it, enjoying the relaxed silence that the two of them could finally feel between each other.

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you enjoyed! I expect myself to update sometime this week, but no promises that it'll be before Friday since I'm busy.<strong>

**Reena x**


	15. Part XV

**Return**

**AN: All right guys, here's some progression in both relationships this chapter. Also, to those of you still watching, I can't believe the finale is in less than forty-eight hours. **

**Also, again, sorry these chapters are so spaced out. I'm suddenly getting a social life, along with less time because of work, but I will not give this story up.**

**Also, for anyone who stalks my twitter, I made a Wilson/Julia fanmix to go along with this fanfic. The link for it can be found on my author page if you want to have a look at it.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XV<span>

The makeshift bar was almost full, and the majority of the invitees at the hospital fundraiser sat at its wooden stools. None of them spoke to each other, expect for two people at one end of the table, and throughout the room, their voices were almost as inaudible a a pin drop. Three other invitees sat spread along the rest of the space, all of them ignoring each other, waiting until the evening came to a close.

"So you've been married three times, and still don't think you found the one?" Julia Cuddy stirred her martini quietly, eyeing James Wilson's exhausted gaze over her glass. "That's impossible, you have to have thought that at least one of your wives was worthy enough to be the one."

"Let's just put it this way," Wilson stared at the pale ale in front of him, leaving it untouched as he stared back at Julia, "I haven't found anyone who I love as much as House loves your sister." He glanced down the bar to where Cuddy sat, quietly stirring her own martini, "The two of them have a unique relationship, and I don't think I'm ever going to find something as special as they have."

"You'll find someone." Nodding, Julia sipped her martini, "Trust me, I was convinced that I wasn't going to meet anyone after Anthony, and I did." She smiled a bit, "I have no idea if it's going to be worth it, especially when I don't know how he's going to react to knowing I have two kids as well, but we all deserve happiness."

"I like to think that my luck on successful relationships has run out," Wilson admitted, "I think I've dated every single compatible woman that I've ever met." He paused, unsure of how honest he and Julia were going to get with their discussions on failed relationships, "And that includes former patients of mine, which, I'll be honest now, I'm not proud of that one."

"We all make mistakes, some greater than others, but we all make mistakes." Sauntering over to them, Lisa Cuddy eased herself onto the bar stool besides her sister, "That doesn't mean we don't deserve another chance to redeem ourselves to the people who are most important to us."

"Thinking of yourself and House, are you?" Julia couldn't help but smirk a bit, and she stopped as her sister glared at her over the martini glass.

"Shut up," Cuddy muttered, fishing the cherry from her glass, "I'm being pretty damn general, if you ask me. The fact that you can relate that to House and I is a pure coincidence - everyone screws up sometimes."

"That doesn't mean they stop loving each other." Wilson added, looking more at Cuddy than Julia now, and he stopped, staring at her facial expression. "What's gotten into you? Every time either Julia or I have mentioned House since you got back, you've reacted that way."

"What way?" Swirling her martini glass, Cuddy eyed Wilson blankly, "I haven't acted any differently than I usually do when you mention House."

"You are." Staring at her sister's eyes, Julia nodded in agreement with Wilson, "You seem angry."

"I'm fine." Stalking back over to her end of the bar, Cuddy dropped into the chair, earning confused looks from both Wilson and Julia in return.

"She's not fine," Wilson glanced at Julia out of the corner of his eye, sipping the pale ale in front of him, "I have't seen her like this, since well, she and House broke up." He paused, "I know I wasn't exactly there for her last time, at least not like you were, but I saw her fall apart just as much as you did."

"Do you think they kissed?" Julia asked, looking back to where Cuddy stirred her martini quietly, then back to where Wilson followed her gaze. She stirred her own martini, watching Wilson over the rim of her glass, "It doesn't seem like her, unless something happened between her and House, to just snap when his name is mentioned." Smiling a bit, she gave a gentle shrug, "If you ask me, the two of them really do deserve something good out of their relationship, and I don't really know what would be the next logical step."

Wilson laughed quietly, taken with how direct Julia suddenly was about her sister's relationship status, "You think it's a good idea then?" He paused, trying to word his thoughts into the best, most neutral, phrasing, "After all, I think the two of them are pretty convinced that we're interested in each other anyways." Not missing Julia's sharp intake of breath, he went on, "Who knows, they might get more wrapped up in getting us together than they are themselves."

"We cant control that," Julia began quietly, and she stood, a faint smile playing on her lips, "But you know, if anything _did_ happen between House and Lisa, then we don't exactly need to sit around guessing about it. You know as well as I do that if anything happened, then I'm sure I'll be able to talk it out of her eventually." Glancing to where Cuddy twirled the almost-empty martini glass between her fingers, then back to Wilson, Julia smiled a bit more, "What do you say?"

"You're insane," Wilson nodded, going along with the suggestion anyways, and he followed Julia towards where Cuddy watched them out of the corner of her eye.

"If I tell you what happened, then will the two of you go back to minding your own business?" Cuddy looked up as the barman placed a second margarita in front of her, and she turned to face Wilson and Julia as they sat down besides her. Shifting a bit closer to them, she dropped her voice, seeming embarrassed by the news she was about to break, "House and I ... well, he kissed me."

Wilson blinked, his eyes wide, "When?" He inadvertently reached for Julia's hand and squeezed it in surprise, keeping a gentle hold on it, "What exactly happened?" Realizing his actions, he didn't bother to let go, and merely loosened his grip, oblivious to the smirk on Cuddy's lips.

"We kissed." She replied shortly, "What more detail do you need? Or even think that I'm going to provide you?" Blushing faintly at her words, Cuddy took a sip of the martini in front of her, "It's none of your business, either of you, at least not yet. And I don't want me telling you both to be a step backwards with House, you know how he takes pride in being the one to tell people." She started at Wilson, the events of the post-weekend fiasco at the hospital after she had first told House how she felt about him running through both their minds.

"Of course not," Julia gingerly pulled her hand from Wilson's, unsure if she should feel embarrassed or pleased that they had been able to make some sort of contact in front of her sister without making her feel uncomfortable. She could tell, at least based on the smirk on her sister's face, that a chance at patching up her heart would do her some good. Resting her hand besides Wilson's on the counter, she let her fingertips brush the side of his palm, and she leaned against the counter to eye Cuddy.

"I'm serious, both of you." Cuddy looked between her sister and Wilson, her eyes narrowed almost suspiciously at them. "You can't tell him anything about what you know happened between us earlier. I know the two of you well enough, and even though he respects you both, it won't end well if either of you two say anything."

"You mean to say that you don't want to screw up any chances by having either of us get involved again." Wilson interjected, and he glanced at Julia, as if reading her own thoughts. "Okay, I guess the two of us can respect that, at least for a while." He looked back to Cuddy, "You can't let this dance between the two of you drag on for years like you did before, it's not healthy, or all that productive either. We both know how House is about relationships, and if he needs you, then he'll wait for you to do something."

"I know that." Cuddy insisted, staring back at them, and she glanced at the martini glass in front of her, "Speaking of which, we should all get going. I told House that we would stop by on our way home from the fundraiser, you know, just to make sure that he's all right." She collected her purse, rifling through it in order to pay the barman, "Are the two of you ready to go as well?"

"I guess so," Julia nodded, watching in surprise as Wilson paid for both of their drinks, "That is if you are too Wilson. Lisa and I told our mother that we'd be back, at the latest, one-thirty to pick up our kids." She watched in even more surprise as Wilson linked his arm with hers, pulling her closer to his side, and Julia blushed faintly as she made eye contact with Cuddy. "Seriously?"

"What?" Both Cuddy and Wilson looked at her in unison, then stopped to stare at each other, amused.

"You two...I'll wait for you both at the car," Cuddy picked up her pace, shaking her head at Wilson and Julia's half-embarrassed, half-joyful expressions. Something told her that the two of them were just waiting for the right moment, and it was exactly what they all needed right now. The right moment in order to figure out what would come next.

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><p><strong>AN: So, I promise, I <em>will <em>make an effort to get back on a regular posting schedule soon!**

**Reena x**


	16. Part XVI

**Return**

**AN: ...Wow, it's really over, even after a week, I'm still processing. No matter when you started or stopped watching, we're all fans of the same show, and thank you for loving it as much as I have.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XVI<span>

_Bang_.

"Should we go in and see if he's all right?" Julia Cuddy hovered furthest from the green apartment door, her gaze on her sister and friend. She shifted her feet, trying to maintain her balance as she toed off her high heeled shoes at the same time, and leaned herself against the cool wall. "I know you both suggested on the way here that the three of us shouldn't all go in and check on him." Looking pointedly at her sister, she couldn't help but smirk at her suggestion, "Maybe you should go."

"Why?" Lisa Cuddy hissed back at her elder sister, her eyes narrowed gently, "Because he kissed me?" Folding her arms across her chest, she shook her head at the two people in front of her, "Wilson, you know him best, maybe you should go in and check on him first."

"Because he's my friend?" Wilson shot back, raising an eyebrow, "He's your ex."

"Exactly." Cuddy nodded, "Gregory House is my _ex _boyfriend."

"Not for long," Julia smirked, enjoying the banter between her sister and James Wilson, and she pushed between them, resting a hand on the brass doorknob, "After you Lisa." Opening the door, she blinked in the darkness of the room, offering her sister the first step into the apartment.

"Fuck you." Hissing quietly to her sister, Lisa Cuddy stepped into the darkened apartment, blinding feeling across the wall for a light switch. She closed her eyes, as if hoping to conjure the image of the room in her memory, but all she saw was the dark, empty room as she had left it when she ended their relationship. Letting out a quiet hiss of pain as her fingers connected unceremoniously with the bookshelf, she leapt back, cursing the inanimate object.

A light flickered on, and all three of the intruding guests blinked in the sudden brightness of the living space. "Looking for someone?" Gregory House turned his head from the leather sofa, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead against the bright light, "Hello." He didn't bother to adjust his position on the sofa, and instead, he slumped back onto it, ignoring the sudden flurry of energy around him.

"How are you doing?" Wilson hovered besides the door, Julia at his shoulder, neither of them eager to move any closer. He pivoted himself against the bookshelf, exactly forty-five degrees towards the elder Cuddy, his eyes still focused on his best friend.

"He's alive." Cuddy was at his side in a matter of seconds, running her fingers over his forehead, and she couldn't help but allow a blush to creep onto her cheeks as House reached for her wrist. Reaching for the damp rag that she had left at House's side earlier, she leaned closer, her eyes meeting his, "Are sure that you're all right?"

Managing a nod, House looked to where Julia was watching the two of them quietly, then turned to stare at the side of Cuddy's face. "You brought everyone?" He shivered as the cold water trickled from the rag down the side of his face, not bothering to keep his and Cuddy's kiss an unhidden secret any longer. "Because you know you can't kiss me in front of them."

"Oh?" Cuddy smirked a bit, her eyes trained on the ceramic bowl of water on the end table, "Who ever said that I want to kiss you?" Her blush was more evident now, and as she set the rag back in the bowl to soak, and she looked to her sister and Wilson for help. "Did I ever say that to either of you?"

"Maybe." Julia replied, a wide smirk on her lips, knowing that helping disguise her sister's embarrassment would only become harder and harder as the night went on. She pulled herself away from her place besides Wilson, circling the couch to sit on the lounge chair, "You don't exactly hide it all that well."

In one fluid motion, Cuddy whirled around to stare at her sister, her expression a mixture of horror and playful anger. "Julia Cuddy!" Her cheeks were tinged pink, and she fumbled with a discarded pillow on the floor, aiming it haphazardly at her sister's head. Half amused, she looked back to where House was managing a smile at her embarrassment, "What are you smirking at?"

"Would you two stop dancing around each other already?" Wilson rolled his eyes, not daring to make direct eye contact with either House or Cuddy, "We all know you two kissed before we got here." He looked to where Cuddy was running her fingers not-so-discretely along House's arm, "Cuddy told us back at the fundraiser."

"Wilson, honestly!" The pink tinge on Cuddy's cheeks darkened, almost matching her sister's dress, and she pulled her hand from House's arm, looking between House's smirk and her sister's quiet laughter. "Can't the two of you shut up and stop your dancing around _each other_?" She turned back towards the couch to tend to House, reaching for the dampened rag again, caressing his cheek gently as she dabbed at his forehead.

"Yeah, sure Lisa, you're obviously not still in love with House." Julia remarked, shifting awkwardly on the lounge chair in her dress, a smirk broadening on her lips. She looked up at Wilson, her eyes dancing in the light of the lamp, "Maybe we should leave the two of them alone for awhile."

Shaking his head, Wilson circled the couch as well, pulling the piano bench over towards them, forming a rather lopsided circle with the Cuddy sisters and House. "No, it's much more fun to sit here and watch the two of them squirm while they try and deny the fact that the two of them still have feelings for each other."

"I never said I _didn't_ have feelings for Cuddy," House mumbled, still slightly disoriented by the pain in his leg, and he turned his gaze on Cuddy. His voice dropped a few decibels, and neither Wilson or Julia bothered to strain to hear his words. "I never stopped having feelings for you."

"I ... I know," Cuddy nodded, sensing both Wilson and Julia's gaze on her, and she leaned forwards to drop her voice too. "You don't need to prove anything to me yet House." She ran the damp rag along the side of House's face, pausing momentarily at the crook of his neck, her eyes meeting his, "I need you in my life, no matter what the circumstance. And this time, I want to make sure we ... we do this whole relationship thing right."

House nodded slowly, taking in her words, before he looked to where Wilson and Julia seemed to be exchanging excited glances behind Cuddy's back, "You know, the fact that your sister and Wilson are sitting in the room made that a lot less romantic." He shivered as Cuddy rested her hand on his chest, tugging at his shirt enough to rub the rag across his chest. "And are you honestly going to attempt to get me half-naked in front of them too?" Raising an eyebrow at Cuddy's blush, he noted Wilson's amused expression, "Because last time I checked, you weren't exactly into sharing me."

"I want to make sure you're all right." Cuddy rubbed the rag in slow circles over House's chest, focusing her eyes on the floor besides the couch. The blush on her cheeks only worsened as Wilson stood, and she felt her stomach twist into knots as she already predicted his words.

"Julia mentioned that you need to both get your kids from Arlene's in half an hour." He waited until Julia stood besides him, "I can surely drive you both back if you can leave now." Wilson exchanged a knowing glance with Julia, already predicting the response they were about to receive, and he looked over at Cuddy.

"I should stay here ... just to make sure House is all right." Looking up, Cuddy adjusted her position on the couch, moving to sit besides him. She ran her fingers along the side of House's neck, feeling for his pulse, "You two can head back, I'm sure I can call a cab or something if I need to get home. Jules - do you mind taking Rachel for the night too?" Meeting her sister's eyes, she blushed furiously as Julia nodded, knowing that both the people in front of her were only trying to imagine situations where House and her would be together sooner than imagined.

"Obviously I will." Julia bent to kiss her sister's forehead quickly, then looked up to meet House's tired expression, "You better not drive my sister insane tonight, the last thing I need to hear is her complaining to me about you in the morning." She stepped back, and almost instantly, Wilson linked his arm with hers, "We'll see you both in the morning, or at least sometime soon."

"Night," Wilson lead the way towards the door, not bothering to pause as he and Julia reached it. "Good luck House." As they pulled the green door open, Julia gave one last wink towards her sister before the door swung shut behind them.

"They're no more obvious than we are, are they?" Cuddy muttered quietly, her eyes meeting House's, and she let the rag hover above his collarbone, looking thoughtful. "Julia deserves someone like Wilson in her life, especially after what Anthony did to her, and their family." Hesitating, she bit her lip, glancing away from House seconds later, "She may have been luckier than I, but she needs support more than I do."

House smirked, easing himself into a sitting position, his eyes alight with amusement as Cuddy's hand fell onto his thigh. His expression changed as she pulled away, and he passed the damp rag to her as well, "You know, you don't need to focus on their relationship Cuddy, it's not important to us."

"I know." Embarrassed, Cuddy set the bowl and rag aside, making herself comfortable on the small amount of couch left. She ran her fingers slowly along House's arm, oddly at ease with her sudden comfort around him, and she bit her lip as he grabbed her hand gently. "Do you need me to get you anything?"

"No," House replied, his voice thoughtful, and he waited until he met her eyes, "The pain has died down for now, I'll be able to manage." He smiled a bit, glancing down to where Cuddy's hand had begun to rub soothing circles on the back of his hand, "Just wait with me until the pain fades a bit more."

"I'll always wait with you House," Cuddy replied quietly, her voice just above a whisper. "After all, I love you."

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><p><strong>AN: You all love me ... yes? ;D<strong>

**Anyways - three day weekend, so I will try to get a chapter up before next weekend. **

**Reena x**


	17. Part XVII

**Return**

**AN: I could bore you with the boring (but good) details of my real life, which prevented me from working on this fic until now, but I am officially done with high school so yay! **

**Also, my apologizes if this chapter is remotely OOC, but I tried as hard as I could to make the storyline continue. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XVII<span>

Half an hour later, Cuddy paced the outside of the bathroom nervously, twisting her hands together as she waited. From the other side of the closed door, she could hear House rummaging through the cabinet above the sink, muttering quietly to himself as he looked for a more favorable pain reliever besides his beloved Vicodin pills. She froze, hearing him curse, and she peered anxiously at the door, "House, why can't you let me come in and help you look for something?" Pausing again as the door opened, she met his eyes, waiting for a response, "Did you find something?"

"Nothing but empty Vicodin bottles, and a Ibuprofen pill." House shoved the offending over the counter pill into his mouth, dry swallowing it as he stared half-regretfully at the empty Vicodin bottles in the metal waste basket. "That's what I get for being gone." He limped past Cuddy, the indirect mention of his time in jail hanging in the air between them, making his way back towards the couch to continue his night.

"Do you want me to drive to the drug store...?" Cuddy questioned, following House quietly back into the room, "I know I'm still in my dress from the fundraiser, but I don't care." She eyed House as he pried open a stashed bottle of Advil from the drawer in the end table, "House...?"

"It's not Vicodin," House held out three of the red oval pills towards her, before withdrawing the pills back towards his chest, holding onto them. He stared at the bottle, muttering to himself as he scanned the room, wordlessly searching for a forgotten stash of his favorite relief.

"I'm not letting you overdose on Vicodin, no matter how much pain you're in." Folding her arms across her chest, Cuddy perched herself on the opposite end of the couch, staring at him. "Nor will I let you do it on Advil either. Just because it's over the counter doesn't mean I'll willing to sit by and watch you screw with your health."

"Just a news flash for you," House snapped bitterly, cutting her off as he dry swallowed two of the Advil pills, "I've been following your version of 'screwing with my health' for the past ten to fifteen years, so this is nothing new." He shifted enough on the couch to stare at her, "Why do you suddenly have a problem with my pain when you're in love with me?"

"I ... I ... don't," Cuddy stammered, and almost regretfully, she dropped onto the end of the couch opposite House, avoiding making eye contact with him. "House, you know as well as anyone else in the world that you have a constant pain problem, and that your management of it isn't what most people would consider healthy by any means. It doesn't mean you can't suffer, or that you can't find ways of managing it, but it does affect how _I _act around you." She paused, "The ways you choose to manage your pain scare me House, and I don't think ... I know ... that I would never forgive myself if I lost you because of something you did."

House blinked at her, as if trying to piece together the ways in which her words made sense, and he furrowed his brow slightly to stare at her. "You know, you never did care before."

"I did ... I really did House," Cuddy bit her lip, knowing that he was thinking of the night she had broken up with him, "But I was hurt. I was hurt, upset, angry and scared." She winced, feeling the skin break and she flicked her tongue over the first few droplets of blood. "You have always been the most incredible man I've ever known, and loved, but I couldn't face all of my demons at once. You know that as well as I do that we all have our breaking points. And as much as that night has always pained me, that was the only thing that I thought that I could be able to loose."

Rambling on, Cuddy closed her eyes, deep in thought as she tried to stop the sudden flood of memories. "I thought that I was strong enough to leave you, but I wasn't. I _need_ you in my life, and I know Rachel does too. You are more important to me that I think I was ever able to admit to myself, up until I saw you that night back in your office with Adams. I've always known that you're a jerk, and somehow, it hasn't changed what I truly do think of you." Reaching up, she ran a thumb over House's cheek, "I've always been in love with you House, no matter what you've done to try and hurt me."

"Cuddy." House interrupted again, her words slowly falling into place in his mind. "I lost control, and when you realized that, you left." He glanced away, long enough for Cuddy to realize how deeply he wanted his words to touch her, "I knew, I knew right away that I screwed up. But, we both know that you did too. None of us saw that coming, and there was no way to predict our reactions." Easing himself into a sitting position, he reached for the Advil bottle again, his eyes meeting Cuddy's, "I didn't deserve that."

After a sharp intake of breath, Cuddy reached over and grabbed House's hand in her own, keeping her eyes locked on his. "You know I didn't either." She bit her lip again, knowing it was the wrong thing to say, and she glanced down at their clasped hands, hoping to divert the conversation away from their breakup. "I know you deserve another chance House, but I don't know how to give you that without us making the same mistake all over again."

House's eyes widened at her words, and he gripped Cuddy's hand a bit tighter, as she continued on. "I don't know if I can bring you back into my life without Rachel knowing how important you are to me. You're the most incredible man I've ever known, and no matter how many times I tell you that, we're always going to remember how much we've hurt each other. But I need you in my life Gregory House, and I know you need me." She blinked, not daring to tear her eyes away from his, "I love you, and no matter how many mistakes we've made, that is never going to change."

"You left me." House began, unsure of how he should even begin to try and build up an argument to her obvious dedication to him. "You told me that I didn't have to change for you, and I did. When you needed me to be there, I tried my hardest. I can't take care of kids, and yet, somehow I managed to realize how important Rachel was in my life." He stopped, looking down to their clasped hands, "You and Rachel were the most important things in my life - more important than my job, my pain ... anything. And you let that go to waste."

"Because we didn't know how to react," Cuddy urged, "You already said that House, neither of us knew how to react. Both of us only did what we were used to." She reached forwards to run her fingers along his cheek, "Before you, all I ever worried about was Rachel, and what would happen to her. Then, you were in my life more than I ever thought you would be, and suddenly, I had to worry about the both of you. When I got sick, I couldn't think properly, and all I could think about was what would happen to Rachel. I know now, that I should have thought about you too, especially because I know how you handle your own fear and pain, but I didn't. All I could think about was Rachel at the time, and I'm sorry for it." Puling her hand back, she bit her lip, "I know I can keep apologizing over and over too, because I know that's not what you need to hear."

House eyed her slowly, turning the Advil bottle between his fingers, the faint echo of the red pills sounding throughout the living room. He paused long enough to twist open the bottle and shake one into his hand, "You don't know what I need anymore Cuddy, that changed shortly after you broke up with me." Tossing the plastic bottle onto the couch beside shim, House blinked at her, unsure of where they were going.

"Can we ... you know ... discuss what comes next instead?" Cuddy interrupted, unsure if she should look over to where House was eyeing her quietly. "I know we both made mistakes in the past, but instead of discussing them, can we talk about what we want to do right this time?" Her voice nearly begged for another chance, and both she and House knew it, and she looked away from him, towards the front door.

"I can't let you back in."

"Why can't you?" Cuddy half argued, her eyes narrowed a bit, "You nearly begged for me before, and now you can't." She eased herself off of the couch, gathering her dress with her. "House, this isn't fair to me, or you, or Rachel. We all know that we need each other, and if this isn't going to work for you suddenly, then I don't know if this was fair to me."

House shifted uncomfortably on the couch, staring at her as she inched away from him, "Cuddy, I _need_ you. I need you and Rachel in my life. But I can't let either of you in any more without risking the fact that you're going to leave again." He paused, looking up to stare her in the eyes, "I'm sorry."

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><p><strong>AN: Mer. Negative RL situation and rain lead to depressing chapters. Also, for anyone who is looking for me via Twitter, I am taking an unofficial break until further notice. I will be returning though, just not yet.<strong>

**Reena x**


	18. Part XVIII

**Return**

**AN: New chapter - updates may be slow until the end of June, but I will write! **

**(I graduated yesterday, then have my birthday on Monday, then college orientation then a weekend trip...all before the 25th.)**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XVIII<span>

Blinking slowly, almost too rapidly to see straight, Lisa Cuddy leaned against the outside of the quiet apartment, her arms wrapped around her own waist. Her high heeled shoes lay besides her, and her hair was slowly coming undone from its elegant twist. A shaky sob echoed from her throat, and she inhaled deeply, automatically, as if trying to regain her last bit of control.

"Lisa?" A set of footsteps was heard, and quietly, Julia Cuddy stopped at the open door of the apartment complex, looking worriedly at her sister. "What happened?" She moved forwards, unsure where to begin in the always-grueling process of reassuring her younger sister that the differences between her and House when it came to their relationship were normal.

"He doesn't ... won't ... let me back in." Leaning against the wall, Cuddy looked up, revealing her red-rimmed eyes to her sister, "I told him that he and I could try to fix our mistakes again. And he won't let me in." She stopped and raised an eyebrow, hearing more footsteps, as James Wilson trailed into the apartment complex, "What are you doing here?"

The oncologist held up his hands, looking surprised, "I was your sister's ride over here." He dropped his hands, seeing how broken Cuddy looked, and he glanced at the green apartment door, "Do you need me to talk to him for you? I don't know what I could say, but it might help if someone else is there with him."

"I ... I don't know." Cuddy bit her lip, unsure if House would be willing to open up to anyone else, about anything, after their conversation, and she gave a noncommittal shrug, "See what Jules thinks."

"I'm here for you right now." Julia began, cutting Wilson off before he spoke, "I've seen you hurt before, and I'm not going to screw it up like last time." She paused, accepting the Volvo's car keys from Wilson, and she gave him a nod, "Look, we can go back to my place, and you can change into something comfortable." Rubbing her sister's arm awkwardly, she glanced up at Wilson, unsure if he was willing to stay at House's apartment until they could return the car back to him.

"If it's important." Wilson returned Cuddy's shrug, and he glanced at the apartment door. "I don't know what, if anything, I will be able to say to House. You know how he gets when he feels that he's doing the right thing." Stopping, he glanced at Julia, then back to Cuddy, "I can't force myself to understand why he's doing what he is, nor can I get him to explain it anymore than he's willing to, but I will do my best."

Julia nodded, understanding Wilson's words to mean that she and Cuddy should leave, and she nudged her sister gently in the side. "I'll call you if we have any problems." She left her sister's side long enough to step up besides Wilson, and quickly, she pressed a nervous kiss to his lips, "See you later." A small smile spread across her lips as he nodded, and she turned back to where Cuddy smirked at the two of them, easing her high heels back onto her feet.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Cuddy asked, her eyebrow raised once they were out of earshot of Wilson, "I am your sister after all." She fiddled with her bracelet, "I've also known Wilson much longer than you, it's only ... you know ... fair." Letting out a short laugh, she leaned against the Volvo as they reached it, more sad than tired. "You two make a cute couple though Jules."

"As do you and House," Julia nodded at her sister as she unlocked the car, "You two just need to figure each other out again." She glanced over as Cuddy made a face, "If you don't mind me saying, you two have a lot of things to work through from before, and it wouldn't be fair to either of you to pretend they just didn't happen."

"I prefer to." Cuddy replied shortly, picking at the chipped blue nail polish on her fingers, "It made trying to move on a lot easier before."

"You said it yourself Lisa," Julia pushed, "You're _not_ going to get over House, the both of you have history too complicated to figure out." She raised an eyebrow at her sister, "There's also no way in hell that you're going to say that you would prefer to forget about all the history that the two of you have had together when you now work with him on a daily basis."

"Work for him." Cuddy's replies were short, and she stared at her sister out of the corner of her eye, jealousy nipping at her. "Why should you care anyways? You have Wilson now."

"Because you're my sister." Julia insisted, "And you know, no matter how many times I try and tell you, if I never told you before about Rachel and your medicine, then nothing would have changed. You and House would have had your issues, sure, but you and I both know that my comments let you make the worst of the situation." She paused, "House loves you still, no matter what he says, and you running away from your feelings isn't what I expect of you."

"You know, sometimes you make no sense Jules." Cuddy rolled her eyes, leaning back into the Volvo's seats, and she turned to gaze at her sister. "First you want to blame us for over thinking, then you sound like you're trying to blame House for being unsure, then me for running away." She stopped, realizing she was confusing herself, "What do you mean?"

Julia laughed, the sound a relief for the both of them, "That's exactly my point Lisa. Your relationship with House is incredibly complex and there's no way in hell that you two are going to work by pretending that none of it ever happened." She arced an eyebrow at her sister, easing the Volvo into the early morning traffic, "You and House deserve each other, and the both of you know it, but dancing around each other the way that you two do isn't worthwhile."

Laughing softly again, Cuddy bit her lip, unsure how annoyed or upset her sister would be at her next comment. "I'm not saying he isn't worthwhile, though Wilson on the other hand...he isn't exactly known for being caring." She hesitated, debating if it was worth it to mention Wilson's previous infidelities to her sister, "He hasn't exactly been all that ... loving to his partner in the past."

"You mean he's had affairs." Julia quipped, glancing at her sister, "I know, he told me. But I told him that if he expects me to stay with him, then we're going to be truthful to one another, and if I do find out he isn't telling the truth, then it's over." She paused, "You know, tonight wasn't his and my first date either Lisa; we've been seeing each other for almost a month now."

"Wow."

That was all Cuddy had to say in response, and she rubbed her temple slowly, doing the calculations in her head. She blinked, then raised an eyebrow at her sister, "You mean you two started seeing each other almost as soon as mom got out of the hospital?" Not bothering to finish her thought, she leaned back in the seat, slumping a bit. "Now I really feel like I deserve someone."

"You mean you deserve House." Julia slowed the car to a stop in front of her house, then after a few moments hesitation, backed up into the drive. She didn't bother to look at her sister, already knowing that her sister knew she was right, and she smirked. "No matter what anyone else ever tells you, or House; the two of you will always find your way back to one another. It's obvious."

"Shut up." Cuddy mumbled, climbing from the car, and she eyed her sister quietly, "It's not my fault." Shrugging as she headed up the walk towards the front door, she raised her voice so her sister could hear her, "It's not like I _chose_ to spend the majority of my life in love with him. It just kind of happened." Stopping to look at her sister, she let out a long sigh, "I just don't understand him sometimes, even if I know that's always how he and I are going to be."

"Maybe it's life." Julia unlocked the front door, blinking at her sister out of the corner of her eye, "I know Anthony and I were the same way, even if he and I were very different than you and House. Not all couples have to fit together perfectly Lisa, sometimes the things that make them fight to keep their relationship going are also the strongest parts of it." She shrugged a bit, looking up as Cuddy nodded slowly, "All I know is that no matter what you and House go through, together or apart, you two both clearly care about each other afterwards. Maybe it means there's going to be times that the two of you fight, but if you two can admit at the end of the day that you both love each other, then maybe that's all you two need right now."

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><p><strong>AN: Also, personally, I have no idea how long this story will be, therefore, I hope you all enjoy reading! <strong>

**Reena x**


	19. Part XIX

**Return**

**AN: My deepest apologies on not updating this in so long - I just self-published my first novel and my writing time had been consumed with editing and preparing it.**

**Enjoy!**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XIX<span>

Pacing the apartment, Wilson threw up his hands in exasperation, still unable to form any type of logical sentence as he stared at his best friend. "Why the hell did you drive Cuddy away?" He stopped, furrowing his brow as House seemed to ignore him, and he folded his arms across his chest, "Are you listening?"

"Clearly." House replied shortly, staring at the ground, and he flicked his thumb over his t-shirt, "She still loves me." He hesitated, unsure how much of his conversation with Cuddy he should reveal to Wilson, and he turned ever so slightly to stare at the digital clock on the stove. "Since when did you and Cuddy's sister think it was a good idea to double date?"

"Wh...what?" Wilson half-sputtered, and he made a face at House, unsure if he should be more upset at House's usual avoidance or the topic in which the conversation had been changed to. "Julia and I aren't ... it wasn't a double date ... we're not ... it's nothing serious." He finally managed to make sense of his words, and he gave a start at House's loud, long laugh that followed.

"You have a habit of kissing women who are just your friends?" House eyed him, suddenly interested in Wilson's new love life.

"No." Wilson countered, looking at him sideways, "Unless I'm mistaken, that's your turf." He smirked slightly, knowing that House knew exactly what moment he was referring to, and he folded his arms across his chest to mirror his friend. "I didn't drive over here with Julia to let you poke your nose into my personal life."

"But you let me do it so easily." House half-whined, "Wilson, you're an open book."

"And so are you," Wilson cut him off, "At least when it comes to you and Cuddy." He crossed the room and circled into the kitchen, trading personalities with House as he rifled through the fridge for anything non-alcoholic to drink. "Do you drink anything _besides _scotch or whiskey?" Raising an eyebrow at his friend, Wilson stood with his hands on his hips, "And don't tell me you drink water."

"I don't buy soda, or juice, if that's what your asking." House's voice faltered slightly, and Wilson nabbed a guess at a buried memory of Rachel and him, "I manage fine on my own, thank you very much."

"And look where that got you." Wilson helped himself to one of the colder beers, in hopes that the chill would distract him from the alcohol, and he pointed the unopened bottle towards House. "You're miserable, watching everyone around you fall into relationships, and you refuse to give any chances out to the one that actually helped you."

House frowned, knowing Wilson meant his previous relationship with Cuddy, and he circled in place to stare at him. "In case you've forgotten, she dumped me."

"So you're still hurt, clearly." Pivoting the beer bottle on its edge, Wilson spun it quietly on the table, "Understandable House, but you need to accept that. People screw up for various reasons, and here Cuddy is, admitting to you that she screwed up. Isn't that what you always wanted her to do?" He stopped, catching the faintest nod from House, "That's not what you wanted?"

"Of course it is." House snapped, "But I'm not about to let her come crawling back to me and expect everything to be the same." He paused, the very next words from his mouth chilling him, "You know what she told me? She told me that she didn't want me to change for her. And look what happened when I didn't change, she ended it." Stopping again, he made his way towards the leather couch in the center of the living room, "I can't do this dance forever."

"And you've decided that giving up is the other option?" Wilson set aside the beer, staring at House curiously, "I thought this was the same woman who you spent almost a year denying to me that you were in love with because you were too scared to admit it to yourself?" Arching his eyebrow a bit higher, he made his way over to the living room chair opposite the couch, sitting on it, "House, you need to be able to admit to yourself that you are in love with Cuddy, and that you two are going to keep up this dance forever."

"No, we won't do this for-_fucking_-ever." Mumbling, House looked up at Wilson, "She'll move on eventually."

"Didn't she already try that?" Wilson couldn't help but laugh as he remembered the whirlwind relationship that Cuddy had attempted with Lucas in order to deny her feelings for House to them all, and he leaned back in the chair to stare at House. "She broke it off to run to you, didn't she?"

"She did." House admitted quietly, "Only because I was broken and spinning out of control." He gave a half-laugh and half-snort as he looked at Wilson, "She won't do the same again, you know that as well as I do."

"I don't." Wilson started, but internally, he even questioned his own words. Everyone had a breaking point, and though she loved House, Lisa Cuddy would eventually find hers. He paused, knowing that House already knew the truth about him and Julia, and that no matter how hard he tried to deny it, it would be obvious. "You know, Julia and I have often wondered about the two of you."

"So you admit it." House stared at him, unsure if he should feel triumphant for forcing Wilson to reveal his newest relationship, "You are dating Cuddy's sister."

"You mean the elder Cuddy sister." Wilson admitted, knowing that the specificity of his words would only irk House more. He made a face, which only appeared to be a mix of amusement and boredom, "The younger sister is yours."

"She isn't anyone's." House insisted, surprised that Wilson would even imply the fact that he viewed Cuddy as entirely his. He folded his arms across his chest and returned Wilson's stare, "There's no rule stating that she wants to date me anymore anyways, it doesn't make sense to assume such."

Wilson let out a long laugh, and to his utter surprise, House only rolled his eyes at his persistence. "There's no rule stating she doesn't want to date you House?" In between laughs, Wilson blinked up at his friend, "Have you _seen _the way that she looks at you?"

Rolling his eyes, House stepped back, already knowing that Wilson had made his point clear. There was a time, and he had to admit that he knew it was drawing closer, where Cuddy would stop chasing after him, no matter what he still felt for him. She had a family, or at least Rachel, to be there for and he didn't expect her to wait forever either. "What about her own life?" Turning his gaze on Wilson, he knew his words set the wheels turning in his friend's head.

"She knows that her happiness includes you." Wilson began slowly, unsure of how much he should reveal about what he and Julia had discussed, "I think we're all pretty clear on that by now. You know as well as I do that Cuddy could find someone else to date if she were seriously wanted to consider it." Glancing away, he knew how unlike it would be of him to remind House of all his mistakes in one go, "Julia tried that once ... and well, we all know exactly how that turned out."

Frowning a bit, House gave a curt nod, preferring not to be reminded with his brief, and disastrous, encounter with Jerry. He pivoted himself on one hip, as if deep in thought, "You know, she still does love me."

"Didn't I just say that?" Wilson asked, confused. He furrowed his brow, trying to figure out why exactly House had been denying the truth about him and Cuddy ever since she and Julie had left, and momentarily, he let his thoughts drift to the elder Cuddy sister and his own feelings. Shaking his head, he blinked at House, "You two will always find a way to be together, no matter what. Right?

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><p><strong>AN: Also sorry, I've gotten away from writing Huddy because of aforementioned novel, but I will improve!<strong>

**KM x**


	20. Part XX

**Return**

**AN: The time has come where I feel like this story is beginning to drag on, and on, so I'm going to be wrapping it up soon. (Starting with this chapter.) But don't worry, I won't rush it!**

**Warning: This chapter does follow parts of season 8.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XX<span>

In the evening air, Julia Cuddy leaned back to tip the last of her Merlot against her lips, her eyes alight with a playful laugh. Her lips curved into a half smile, her faint lipstick staining the wine glass as she placed it on the table in front of her, and she turned her gaze towards her sister. "You can't be serious about that."

"I am." Crossing her ankles and straightening her back against her sister's metal deck chairs, Lisa Cuddy tipped the rim of her own glass of wine, her choice being a Pinot Grigio, towards her. "I actually did consider putting Rachel into a private pre-kindergarten program."

Across the glass table, both Gregory House and James Wilson let out quiet laughs, unsure whether they should be amused or stunned by their former boss' comment. The younger of the two men glanced towards both Cuddy sisters, his gaze lingering on his girlfriend a little bit longer, then he nudged House in the arm.

"What?" Furrowing his brow, House didn't tear his gaze from where Cuddy blinked down at her wine, and a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He slouched in his seat enough to poke his cane into the base of Cuddy's bare foot, letting it fall as soon as she flinched.

"House!" Wine sloshed gently in the glass as she sat up, her eyes narrowed in mock anger at him. Reaching for her foot, Cuddy awkwardly crossed it over her lap, massaging it as she stared back at him. A pout formed on her lips as she pressed her fingers into the muscle, and she sighed, "That hurt."

"It wasn't that hard." In a half-whine, House picked up his cane once more and poked Wilson in the ribs with it, hoping to prove a point.

In response, he earned the rest of Wilson's warmed Sam Adams beer down the front of his shirt. "That wasn't an invitation to poke me!" Eyes narrowed, the oncologist scooted his car in a one hundred and eighty degree rotation to sit besides both Cuddy sisters, his gaze resting on Julia.

"You two are worse than House and I." Looking up at her ex-boyfriend, Lisa Cuddy blinked fondly at him before turning her attention to her sister and WIlson, "You'd think you two were high school sweethearts by the way you're constantly glued at the hip." She swirled the last of her wine in her glass, staring at it in thought, "Just promise me Jules, you won't become the next Mrs. James Wilson. I don't think I could handle my sister marrying my ex's best friend."

"I'm hurt." Wilson placed a hand to his heart in mock sadness, but a flash of terror and fear flashed through his gaze at the mention of the future. He reached for Julia's hand and squeezed it, his voice a stage whisper as he rested his forehead against her temple, "Your sister's just upset because she has the hots for House."

"Excuse me?" Both Cuddy and House turned their attention on the couple seated with them, and then to each other, knowing how true Wilson's words were. Blinking, Cuddy touched her cheeks, feeling a blush creep onto her cheeks. "I do _not_ have the hots for House anymore."

"Everybody lies." House glanced down, still dabbing at the Sam Adams on his shirt that Wilson had sloshed at him, then back to Cuddy. He stood, as if circling her, and perched himself on the edge of her chair, resting his hand on her knee almost playfully.

Brushing his hand off her knee, Cuddy shifted in her seat to stare at where Wilson and her sister sat side-by-side, "What did you want to talk about anyways Wilson? You kind of scheduled this all last minute." She set aside her wine glass as she drained the last few drops, "Not that there has to be a reason, but it seemed like there was earlier."

"I ... I guess there was." Hesitating, Wilson pulled himself away from where Julia sat, moving to pace the back deck, avoiding their gazes. He twisted his hands together, his feet scuffling along the oak wood, before he turned to stare at all three of them. "I got some, erm...not so great news." Looking between House and Julia, his gaze rested on his best friend, "About my health."

"James...what happened?" Voice hushed, Julia Cuddy stood and moved over to reach for her boyfriend's hand. "What haven't you mentioned this to me before?" Her gaze darted to where her sister had moved to wrap her arms loosely around House's shoulders, then she turned back to rest her palms against Wilson's cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Don't." House's voice came out slightly strangled, and while he was the stronger of the two, he seemed to sag against Cuddy for support. He accepted the reassuring hug that she gave him, her cheek resting lightly against his bicep, "I don't need to hear it." There was a sharp intake of breath from him as Cuddy laced her fingers with his, and he seemed to sag against her side even more.

"It's Stage Two Thymoma." Looking ashamed, Wilson gripped Julia's hand a bit tighter than necessary, and he looked at her, a mixture of anger and fear written across his face as he spoke. "It's funny isn't it? An oncologist with cancer."

"Wilson." Untangling herself from House's grasp, Cuddy moved across the deck to rest her hand uncomfortably, and reassuringly, on her friend's arm. "I'm so sorry." Her eyes met her sister's, and she cast her a sympathetic glance, after Anthony leaving her, the last thing she had wanted for her sister was to face more loss.

"I'll manage." Wilson sniffed, unsure what he should make of House's lack of emotion, "I have everything set in place, for when ... you know." He slid his hand down Julia's arm to lace his fingers with hers, his gaze still focused on where House sat half-frozen in shock at the table, and he turned his attention on Cuddy. "It's him I'm worried about in the end."

"I know." Nodding, Cuddy patted Wilson's arm in another reassuring gesture, before pulling back to look at House once again. She reached out her free hand, as if offering false assurance to House that their friend would try as hard as he could to stay around for long as possible, and she let a small smile slip onto her features as he took her hand.

"House...I'm sorry." Wilson started once House had moved to stand besides Cuddy, and he couldn't help but notice the guarded look in his eyes. "I know it's not up under your control though."

"You shouldn't be feeling sorry for me." Almost disgusted, House pulled his hand from Cuddy's, his eyes faintly narrowed at his friend, "I didn't force you to get sick Wilson." He pulled back, as if burned by the coldness in his voice, and he stepped towards the table once more, seeking his own safety in his distance from Wilson.

Startled, Cuddy pulled away as well, torn between the man she loved, and being there for Wilson, and she dropped into her vacated chair at the glass deck table. "Will you be okay James?" The change in names didn't go unnoticed by any of them, and it felt right in the moment, the four of them were all so broken in their own ways, and they needed the seldom used familiarity.

Blinking as he dropped into his own chair, James Wilson's tired eyes met those of Lisa Cuddy's, and he let out a long sigh. "I don't know Lisa." He took hands once again with Julia as she joined him in the metal chair besides him, "This changes the rest of my life, and my plans."

"No shit." A soft growl emitted from House, and the three of them turned to look at him, "You got yourself a death sentence Wilson." He stopped as Cuddy nudged him in the shin, his brow furrowing in anger and regret, suddenly searching for humor in the moment. "As least you won't be alone."

His words rang true to a conversation that Wilson remembered clearly, and the both of them stared at each other, the words echoing in their minds. It was unsure if he used the phrase as a threat, or simply as a reminder that Wilson wouldn't have to suffer without support from people who loved him. House's vague nature was not the kind of thing that Wilson had expected in the moment, but he understood it as he nodded.

"You won't be alone House." Reaching for his hand, Cuddy grabbed it and held onto it tightly, her gray-brown eyes trained on him. She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand, as if reminding him that he could feel, and that his emotions weren't meant to be kept hidden behind walls in moments like this. "I'll be there with you." Her words were a simple, but reassuring promise, and once more, House seemed to feed off her support as his brain processed Wilson's news. Leaning up, almost hesitantly, she pressed her lips to his quickly, before making sure their eyes made contact once more, "I promise."

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><p><strong>AN: Yes. I'm doing that route. But yay for Huddy kiss! I'm going to be away until July 30th. I'll update once I'm back!<strong>

**x**


	21. Part XXI

**Return**

**AN: Also, rating change! It's up to T now. You'll see why later. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XXI<span>

"So, explain to me what happened." Almost teasing, Julia Cuddy leaned back in her boyfriend's arms, staring up at her sister. A smirk spread across her lips at her sister's blush, and she nodded at her boyfriend. "She refuses to admit that she's never going to get over House."

"Clearly." James Wilson nodded, his mind wandering back to the conversation that had followed his announcement, and he squeezed Julia's hand gently. He turned his attention slowly to his girlfriend's sister, staring at the younger Cuddy with a curious gaze. "Are you going to get over him?"

"Who ever said I was trying to?" Embarrassed by the sudden intrusion into her love life, Lisa Cuddy blushed furiously, her eyes narrowed a bit. "You two both know that getting over him impossible."

"Actually...I'm straight. I wouldn't know that." As if trying to prove his statement, Wilson gave Julia a quick smile and kiss, more shaken with House's sudden departure soon after his announcement. Trying to change the subject away from Cuddy's love life, he sagged back into the pillows, suddenly looking twice his age.

"Should I get going?" Sensing both Wilson's avoidance to discuss House, and his own health, Cuddy leaned against a chair across from her sister and friend. A part of her reminded her that she wouldn't be able to sleep without another conversation with House, and she pushed herself off of the chair. "I'll see you both soon?" Hugging her sister quickly, she reached for her purse, eager to detour by House's apartment.

"If you can...call House for me?" Wilson made eye contact with Cuddy, already knowing that she would _at least _call him, "I want to make sure he's not drowning in loathing because of me."

Nodding, Cuddy gave her friend's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "Of course." She paused, meeting her sister's eyes, "But don't worry about me, either of you." A simple nod to them once more assured them that she was right, she would be fine. And not only would she be fine, she'd find a way to make sure that House was fine as well.

Collecting her things together, Cuddy hitched her purse a bit higher on her shoulder, meeting both their eyes. Giving her sister's shoulder a squeeze, she bent to hug her loosely, "Let me know if _you_ need anything, all right?" Knowing their mother, Arlene Cuddy would be the one who found meaning to intrude into Julia and Wilson's relationship with his forthcoming endeavors. As she headed out, she couldn't help but feel guilty as she left the two of them in her sister's living room.

Dropping herself into the driver's seat of her Lexus, Lisa Cuddy pressed her fingers to her temple, letting out a long sigh. Getting through to House at times like these were always hopeless, no matter who it was, and she couldn't help but wish he would let her listen. She leaned back in her seat, eager to get going to see him, and she almost wondered if he would allow her to stay with him a bit longer.

As she pulled onto one of the main roads along Princeton's outer limits, she reached for her Blackberry, in hopes that calling House in advance would give him a warning, and a chance to consider his words. But, after three tries, she tossed her phone and earpiece into the seat besides her again, letting out an angered sigh. It was like him to ignore people at a time like this, she reminded herself as she pulled alongside a moving van at a stop light. Fumbling in her purse, she tugged out House's apartment key from her wallet.

Finding a parking space around the corner from House's apartment, Cuddy pressed her fingers into her temple once again, steadying herself. She collected her purse, phone and keys into her hands, making her way along the sidewalk. There was a part of her that worried he wouldn't allow her inside, or if he did, then he wouldn't find reason to open up to her. As she leaned on the door, she gave a friendly smile to the neighbor, and approached House's green apartment door nervously.

"I knew you'd show up." The door swung open, and House stood in front of her, balancing his cane between his fingers. Almost willingly, he allowed her to slip by him, and she dropped her purse on the table in front of the leather couch. "What are you doing?"

"Staying." Cuddy glanced up at him out of the corner of her eye, "Is that all right with you?" She frowned, spotting the scotch glass on the table in front of her, and she circled back around to look at her friend. "Are you all right?" Reaching up, she ran her fingers along his stubble, her eyes wide with worry.

House let out a grating sigh, his eyes dull, "Do you think that I'm all right?" He pulled away, turning to stare back at the door. "If you're going to insult me, then you're doing pretty well at it."

"Shut up." Eyes narrowing further, Cuddy grabbed House's large hands in her own, and she pulled him towards the couch. She couldn't help but feel a flash of worry as she remembered the last time the two of them had sat in those places, discussing the beginnings of their relationship. "I'm worried about you."

Once again, she ran her fingers along his cheek, her eyes meeting his, "You didn't take Wilson's news well, and I know you - we - don't have a case." It took time for her to adjust to the fact that she was now working under him, and she felt her stomach jump into her throat as he pulled her a bit closer.

"Cuddy." His voice dropped, as if he was ashamed to admit his weaknesses to her once more, "I need you." He met her eyes, blinking at her, and tentatively, he leaned forwards to kiss her gently once again. The feel of their lips against each others once again was something that the two of them always thrived upon, and House wrapped his arms around her slowly.

"Hey." Mumbling against his lips, Cuddy inhaled nervously, and she pulled back to rest her forehead against his. She reached up, a small smile curving onto her lips, and her eyes shone slightly, "I came here to talk to you about how you're doing, not find myself being made out with." A twinge of laughter crept into her voice, and almost instantly, she found House kissing her again.

"I know." House's kisses were feather-light against Cuddy's lips, and he pulled back enough to trail his lips along her jawbone, "Can't I do both?" He ran his hands along her sides, knowing how easily she gave into his affections during their relationship, and he rubbed his cheek against her neck. As Cuddy shuddered, he reached up to toy with the zipper of her dress, tweaking the metal between his fingers.

Her words meant nothing to him now, and Cuddy let out a quiet gasp as the gentle sting of House's stubble rubbed against her shoulders. "Stop...House, you're a tease." The smile on her lips widened as House kissed along her shoulder lovingly, and she let her head fall back against the couch. Shuddering slightly as she felt the zipper drag down her back, Cuddy blinked fondly up at House, the words dancing on her tongue.

"Say it." House whispered against her skin, half laying across her as he ran his fingers lovingly over her arms. He rested his head gently on her shoulder, half curled besides her, "Say it." His voice was a whisper, and he kissed the valley between her breasts lightly before he twined his fingers with hers.

"I ... I still love you." The words tumbled from her lips before she could stop herself, and Cuddy almost wondered if they still meant as much to her now as they had when they first lay together after the chaotic night in Trenton. She ran her fingers through House's short hair, enjoying the way he dragged his fingers slowly over her bare stomach. There was something so innocent about their intimate positions on the couch that made their relationship feel almost normal.

"I love you too." House's breath tickled her skin, and he let his hand rest, palm open, against her stomach. He craned his head towards her, blinking as his blue eyes met her gray-brown ones, their lips meeting in another all-too-short kiss. Though they would never admit that their most sincere moments always seemed to follow a tragedy, the two of them never forgot what they meant to each other. Their words were something, no matter how tormented they found themselves, was always the one rock that they held onto.

Stretching quietly, Cuddy wiggled herself free of House's embrace on the couch, trying to tug her dress back up around her shoulders. She turned to look at him as he made a grunt in protest, a faint blush tinging her cheeks. Reaching for his hand, she pulled him up so they stood together in the middle of the room. The last time they had stood there in front of each other in such a way, it had been his first declaration of love to her, but now, they were far beyond that.

Pulling her hand from his, Cuddy twisted, deftly tugging the zipper on her dress up to her shoulder blades. "Finish this, will you?" She knew she didn't need to ask, because the minute she had let go, House was already reaching for the zipper, tugging it upwards. "Thanks." As she turned to look at him, the smile slipped from her lips just enough for her to turn serious.

"You need to go, don't you?" The disappointment in House's voice was evident, and he momentarily glanced to where he had left the scotch on the table, wondering if the short but intimate moment they had shared together was her way of guilting the truth from him.

"My mom's watching Rachel." Embarrassment seeped into Cuddy's voice, and she touched House's arm gently, "I promise you, we'll talk tomorrow sometime." She stretched up, a gesture that would have once felt so foreign to her, suddenly feeling absolutely perfect once again, "I love you." Their eyes met, and as House echoed her promise, she knew they would once again find a way to make their relationship work.

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><p><strong>AN: No idea how many more chapters will be left - but I hope you all will enjoy the end half. <strong>

**x**


	22. Part XXII

**Return**

**AN: Sorry for the delay - I made a major RL choice and will begin working full-time within the next few weeks. Therefore, now, my job will be coming first and updates may become infrequent once I start. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XXII<span>

Pacing his inner office, House twirled his oak cane between his fingers as he went. There was a new spring in his step, and neither Chase or Taub dared to comment on their knowledge about why it had suddenly reappeared. Park and Adams were another matter of course, having not known the acerbic diagnostician during his and Cuddy's first shot at a relationship, and instead, they devised clever theories loudly when House was out of earshot.

"He's just happy." Park was guessing, even though she knew House could hear her through the thin glass walls. She started to where Chase and Cuddy had their heads bent together over a file on the end of the table closest to House's office, and then back to where Adams twirled her coffee mug besides her.

"He's obviously getting some." Adams' response was more direct, and at this, both Cuddy and Chase glanced up from their paper and snickered faintly. Turning her attention towards them, the younger doctor raised a thin eyebrow at her coworkers. "What do you know that Park and I don't?"

Cuddy was first to look away, but the smirk on her lips remained as she made a notation on the paper in front of her. Chase, on the other hand, continued to watch as House made another narrow lap around his inner office, then opened his mouth to respond. "You'll see eventually."

"Are you two sleeping together?" Silent, and clearly trying to avoid being dragged into the middle of anything anymore, Christopher Taub looked up from the coffee pot in the corner of the office, his eyes on the table in the center of the room.

"Excuse me?" Park, Adams and Cuddy all spoke at once, two of them very unclear to who Taub was referring to. The tree of them all looked at each other, as if mentally sizing their coworkers up, two of them trying to determine who House was more likely to choose.

Before they could respond to Taub's outburst, the door between the DDX room and House's office swung open, and he stuck his head in towards them. "Who's sleeping with who?" His gaze landed on Chase, then flitted to Park's flustered expression, "Park and Chase? I don't know, ask them."

"I mean you and Cuddy!" Taub blurted out, never the one for smooth entrances, and the eyes of the doctors in the room turned on him. "I mean, you're happy ... and not ... you know ... insulting us every minute of the day." He stopped, as if suddenly revealing top secret information to the room, "And why else would the entire hospital be comfortable with the two of you working together after last time?"

"She's a good doctor." House began, covering for his and Cuddy's healing relationship, and he moved into the room, accenting his limp slightly more than usual. "She's one of the best in the hospital, you know that Taub." He wrinkled his nose, leaving out his usual comment about Cuddy in bed, and blinked at his team member. "And if you wanted to be insulted more, why didn't you just ask?"

"You're an ass." Mumbling, Cuddy glanced at House as he dropped into the chair on her other side, and she pushed the paper that she and Chase had been reviewing in front of him. "Look this over, there's a few notes that I made that I think you'll be interested in."

Furrowing his brows, House blinked, "She's healthy?" His attention was elsewhere, and he laid the paper back on the table, "And she never had any symptoms until now?"

"It's an unusual case House," Chase interjected, breaking the gaze House and Cuddy were sharing besides him, "That's why we thought you'd be interested in it." He pulled the paper back towards him, "See how he notes that his patient never experienced symptoms even though she's an avid athlete?"

"Typical athletes." House was discretely inching his chair towards Cuddy's, "They never know what they're breaking point is until they fall over dead."

"Or pass out." Park pulled the article from Chase's hands, her eyes widening in surprise. "Are you only interested in this case because this is the patient we admitted before ratting her out for double-dipping here and at Boston University?"

"Gimmie." House held out his hand, clearly having missed that note beforehand, and he flipped through the paper in front of him.

A knowing smile formed on Taub's face, and he glanced to Chase for confirmation, "You two are sleeping together."

"It's called dating." Raising an eyebrow, Chase wasn't even sure if he was right about his assumptions about his boss and his coworker, and he glanced to where House's chair nearly touched Cuddy's. "You two aren't all that discrete about it." A smirk formed on his lips, "Kissing on the balcony? I mean, honestly? You two were more discrete the first time around."

"Shut up." Cuddy's face was bright red, and she snatched the paper from House's hands. Flustered, she stood, almost knocking her chair over in the process, "I'm going to go find us a case."

House stood, grabbing Cuddy's wrist gently as she went to leave, "Wait." He pulled her close, almost so their noses touched, and dropped his head enough to kiss her gently on the lips. "I love you."

Embarrassed, Cuddy pulled back once more, this time out of discretion for the rest of her team members, and she blinked at House. Though she loved him, and she always would, she wasn't sure if she was ready to say the same words back to him in public. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, blinking at him once again, "Me too." Her voice was hushed, and she let her smile falter slightly, before pulling back and making her way somewhat hastily out of the room.

Her steps didn't falter, and instead of carrying her towards the elevator, she found herself rounding the ever so familiar corner to James Wilson's office. Hesitating, she drummed her knuckles against the door, letting out a long sigh. "Wilson, we need to talk." She pushed open the door after hearing no response, and blinked up in surprise, seeing her sister look up as well.

"We're busy." Julia stepped back, uneasily dropping onto the couch, and she buried her face in her hands, confused. "What?"

"Is everything all right?" Mood changing completely, Cuddy crossed the room and sat besides her sister, resting her hand on her arm. She glanced quickly at Wilson as he cleared his throat, then looked back to Julia, "Jules, what is it?"

"Uh," Wilson stepped in, "We've been doing some research about the best place for treatment." He moved to shelter himself behind his desk, avoiding looking at both Cuddy sisters, "The closest place that's well recommended for treatment, is well, almost four hundred miles from here."

"Then go." Julia insisted, not giving her sister a chance to speak, and her eyes narrowed slightly as if to challenge him. She turned to face her sister, "What's your hurry?"

"Did you tell anyone?" Cuddy's eyes locked on Wilson, and he knew exactly what she meant by her tone. "House's entire team knows because Taub had to go and open his big mouth." She folded her arms across her chest, knowing the gesture would usually warrant a suggestive remark from House, and uncrossed them to stare at Wilson.

Blinking at her, a faint smirk on his lips, Wilson gave a nonchalant shrug. "No, but you two aren't exactly discrete about your relationship, as usual. I'm pretty sure, the way the two of you act around each other, at least half the staff know." He paused, feeling Julia's gaze on him, "And you know how bad the rumor mill is around here better than I do."

"Shut up." Cuddy blushed faintly, and she stood, not exactly sure if she felt it was respectful to acknowledge her sister after the dismissal of her worries about her and House's relationship again. "I'm just worried, you know what happened last time the entire hospital knew about House and I." Her words didn't fit with her tone, and almost instantly, Wilson understood that it wasn't their first attempt at a relationship, where moreover, their lack of a relationship before his admittance to Mayfield.

"That's different." Trying to reassure her, Wilson cracked what he hoped was a confident smile, "You two weren't exactly focused on trying to make a relationship work then. You had Rachel, and he was dealing with well, you know." He couldn't bring himself to mention the chaos in which Cuddy and House had officially begun their relationship, especially since he wasn't clear on the entire story himself, but he let out a long sigh. "Just make sure you two don't tell the whole hospital again."

"I think House's team is more of a gossip now than before." Cuddy gave a short, half-hearted shrug, eager to get out of the office, "According to him, Taub started talking days ago." She stepped into the open doorway, backing out quietly before the gentle allusions to her first attempt at a relationship with House became any more painful, and she half skidded towards the elevator. The gentle reminders from House's team were enough to make her stomach churn at the almost year she and House had managed to make their relationship last before, but now, with the added stress of Wilson's illness, her own sister's growing relationship with Wilson, and House's uneasiness about their relationship once again, she needed space to breathe. And lately, it was the one thing she wasn't reaching.

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><p><strong>AN: Considering this chapter, I also have completely changed my mind - I don't think I will be finishing this anytime soon so you're all in luck!<strong>

**x**


	23. Part XXIII

**Return**

**AN: Update! This chapter begins to set the stage for ... well, more drama-esque stuff!**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XXIII<span>

The quiet hum of the engine cut off as Julia Cuddy pulled into her sister's driveway one more. She glanced up, seeing the light flicker off in the dining room, and she stepped from the car, feeling guilty. Twisting her hands together, she made her way towards the door, unsure if it felt right that she was intruding on her sister's preplanned evening with House and Rachel.

As she made it to the door, she stopped, craning her neck to peer into the window of the living room. Almost instantly, she felt guilty, seeing House seated at the baby grand piano in the corner of the room, while Cuddy and Rachel sat curled on the couch, clearly relaxed. Shifting her feet, she drummed her fingers against the green wood, her eyes on where the activity in the room stilled.

A faint _clunk_ echoed on the other side of the door, and internally, Julia cringed, feeling worse about breaking Wilson's request to him instead of Cuddy. She bit her lip, glancing down as he pulled open the door. "I thought you knew you couldn't borrow your sister for the evening." House's voice carried towards the living room, and Cuddy padded into the front hall, her brow furrowed, Rachel following her as well.

"Shut up House." Her smile faltered slightly, seeing her sister standing anxiously in front of her, and she nudged him, "Go play for Rachel, I'll be right back." She stretched up to kiss him gently, her voice slightly softer, sidestepping him as he made his way back into the living room. Watching as Rachel pattered back into the room after House, Cuddy's smile slipped back onto her lips, before she turned back to look at her sister. "What?"

"Why are you suddenly so cold to me?" Hovering on the doorstep, Julia bit her lip once again, "Ever since this past week, you know, in James' office, you've barely spoken to me."

"I've barely seen you." Quipping back, Cuddy inched her way forwards enough to let the front door shut behind her, leaning against it. "I've been busy, you know, I have my own personal life outside of worrying about Wilson and your relationship." Crooking her head towards where House had stopped playing and was now sitting in middle of the floor with Rachel, "Just because mom brought us closer doesn't mean it has to stay that way constantly."

Glancing away, Julia stared into the window where House leaned forwards to pat Rachel awkwardly on the top of the head. "You know that his best friend is sick, right?" Her tone was short, clipped, and to the point, but her gaze remained calm, "You can't let him ignore that forever."

Cuddy shifted uncomfortably, knowing their discussion would be about Wilson, and then about her relationship with House, and she gave a shallow nod. "Of course I do, we both know that, but it's not our responsibility to cater to his every whim. I know House, and how he deals with stuff like this is to avoid it." She paused, glancing back to where he and Rachel now sat in silence by the piano, him balancing her precariously on his leg as she pressed her fingers against the keys. "I wish I knew how to help him, and reassure him, but I can't. It's part of him that I don't understand yet."

Julia nodded slowly, as if trying to understand her sister's relationship with House, and she let out a quiet sigh. "James needs him."

"I ... I can't agree to let him go off with Wilson tonight." Cuddy straightened up a bit, somewhat furious that her sister even though to consider dragging House back to Wilson's apartment on the one night they had planned to spend together. "I told you last week, House and I have been planning and changing our schedules around just to make sure this works out. And knowing that we actually _don't_ have a case right now, makes it all the more relaxing." She bit her lip, grimacing a bit, and internally feeling remotely guilty for turning down her sister's request, "Sorry Julia."

As she left her sister, Cuddy stepped back inside the house, and leaned against the back of the door. Waiting until she heard Wilson's Volvo start in front, she ran her hands over the back of her brow, thinking. "House?" Raising an eyebrow, she turned to lean against the entrance of the living room, watching as House sat with Rachel besides the piano bench.

"She's not actually playing yet." House looked up, a somewhat proud expression on his face, "But in time, she'll learn to love it." He lifted Rachel from the bench, and for a moment, he seemed to enjoy the tenderness of his protective care towards her, before she turned to him, her eyes bright.

"I can do it!" Her tone was still light, almost playful, but her meaning was clear, and in order to prove her point, she eased herself from House's grasp once he had set her on her feet. An amused smile slipped onto Cuddy's lips as Rachel headed towards her, hugging her legs, "Hi mommy."

Reaching for her daughter's hands, Cuddy blinked at House as he stood, staring at the piano intently. "You're not going to play anymore?" Her smile never faded as he gave a half-hearted shrug, and made his way across the room to kiss her forehead gently. Though the gesture was unlike him, and slightly a shock, she pulled one of her hands from Rachel's and grasped his free hand, squeezing it lovingly. He was slowly learning that he could be a better father than his imagination believed he could, and her thanks was all he wanted in return.

"You should get to be sweetie." Breaking the silence, Cuddy pulled back to kneel in front of her daughter, "You have a big day tomorrow." Tomorrow, while she never mentioned the word in front of Rachel, was her kindergarten orientation, and both her and House were worried in their own ways. She laced Rachel's small fingers with her own, letting her half-pull her back towards the bedrooms.

"Cuddy?" House called after them, and he followed a ways behind, knowing that the bedtime ritual was Cuddy and Rachel's alone. "I'll find something to play for you later tonight." Managing a nervous smile, he stepped up as Rachel turned to look at him, and he eased himself down to her level. "Goodnight kiddo." He ruffled Rachel's elbow-length wavy brown hair, a smile appearing on his lips as she gave a giggle, "Sleep tight."

Turning her bright eyes on House, the words slipped between Rachel's lips in an amused giggle. "Night daddy." Her choice of words didn't go unnoticed by either House or Cuddy, and he straightened up, avoiding both their gazes.

"Come on." Sounding slightly impatient, Cuddy tugged Rachel's hand, her blush evident, and she steered her daughter towards the bathroom. She let out a long sigh, helping Rachel drag the small step stool towards the sink, and leaned against the wall, her gaze suddenly tired.

~ return ~

Her shadow across the kitchen floor wasn't an uncommon sight at this hour, and usually, it was all too common now to be considered expected. Glancing up from his space in front of the sink, House turned his gaze on her, his cane resting against the counter. "Hey."

Wordlessly, Cuddy slipped her arm through House's, lacing her fingers with his, and she rested her cheek against his bicep. She closed her eyes, exhaling, and she smiled a bit more as House gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "She called you 'daddy'." Cuddy craned her neck to look at House, "Is that why you're hiding in here?"

Ignoring her question, House rested his cheek against the top of her head, "I'm not her father though." Already, he knew it was an argument that he would loose, and he placed a kiss to the top of Cuddy's head, "At least not how she thinks I could be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her voice was reassuring, but her gaze somewhat stern, and Cuddy blinked curiously at him. She leaned into him, just enough to remind him of how much she needed him in her life, and she tightened her grip on his hand. "You _are_ her father to her. Rachel doesn't know anyone else who's been there for her except for you." Pausing, she pulled back to look at him, "She was too young to remember Lucas, and well, she never really understood what was going on when we broke up. She's always loved you House, you know that as well as I do. And I know you keep thinking you're not going to be enough for her, but you are."

"You can't know that," House began slowly, trying not to show the momentary pride he felt from Cuddy at her approval of him as Rachel's father figure. The constant reminders of his own family only worsened the darkness of his thoughts, and he blinked at Cuddy. "You don't know that I'll be a good father."

Stretching up, Cuddy brushed her lips against House's jaw bone, and her voice was a soft whisper as she rested her cheek against his shoulder. "You're exactly what she needs House." She squeezed his hand quickly, before pulling back to look at him, her eyes alight with a smile, "I don't know many other guys who would willingly spend an evening watching cartoons with her. Rachel loves that time the two of you spend together, and when you play piano ... I've never seen her smile like that."

As if slowly beginning to accept her words, House nodded and straightened up, making his way from the kitchen to the living room. "Really?" His voice hushed, he turned to gaze thoughtfully at Cuddy, who stood in the entrance hall. "She really loves my piano playing?"

"Almost as much as I do." A smile slipped onto Cuddy's lips and she moved forwards to kiss House gently, her eyes shining. She stretched up to loop her arms lazily around his neck, and she rested her head on his chest, listening to the faint rhythm of his heart. Even though she had asked him to play for her tonight, that could wait until Rachel was awake the next evening, right now, she had other, more pressing issues on her mind.

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><p><strong>AN: Up next, House confronts Julia and Wilson, and Cuddy gets asked a rather obvious question by ...?<strong>

**x**


	24. Part XXIV

**Return**

**AN: To anyone who is enjoying this Wilson/Julia ship as much as I am, I'm writing various little drabbles about them when I loose inspiration for this fanfic. I've posted one already, titled 'A Chance Meeting', and hope to write more. **

**Also, RL update (once again), I'm starting work full time next week, so updates will probably be even slower than they are now. But, I've decided I'm putting the rewrite of my second original novel on hold until this is finished. **

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

* * *

><p><span>Part XXIV<span>

Stirring, House blinked into the dark space of the room, cursing the alarm clock's tone on the opposite side of the bed. He gritted his teeth, opting not to shut it off, and leaned into the pillows, feigning sleep. Never understanding why Cuddy would insist at getting up at exact six o'clock in the morning was beyond him, and he often insisted that she spent half that time doing unnecessary things around the house.

Besides him, Cuddy let out a low grumble, her eyes squinting in the darkness and she reached over to turn off the offending sound. "House, get up." Her voice was muffled by the pillow that she rested her cheek against, and he nudged him gently in the side with her elbow. Shifting onto her side, she leaned forwards to peck his lips quickly, "Come on."

"Hrmpf." Mumbling, House opened one eye to stare at her, his plan to feign sleep clearly failing. A smile curved onto his lips and he rested his head against his arm, propping himself up enough to kiss her forehead. "Is there a promise of a quickie before work?"

"No." Half-blushing, Cuddy inched her way to her side of the bed, climbing out and tossing the covers towards House, "I don't want your entire team knowing that we're running late because _someone_ wanted sex." She circled the bed to poke him in the shoulder with her brush, "Do you?"

House straightened up, leaning against the headboard, his eyes bleary as he looked at her, "I think they already know." He grabbed Cuddy's wrist as she went to poke him again, pulling her back to his side. "Are you sure?" Raising an eyebrow, he blinked at her, hoping his gaze would convince her otherwise.

"Yes." Smirking, Cuddy pressed her lips against his quickly, "I'm sure." She pulled her wrist from House's grasp, heading towards the bathroom with a slight spring in her step, "Go check on Rachel, will you? I want her up by the time I'm done." As the bathroom door clicked shut behind her, House let out a long sigh, throwing the covers across the bed as well.

Making his way towards the door, House tugged on his t-shirt, throwing a quick glance to the bathroom door. He limped over the door across the hall, drumming his knuckles against the door, pushing it open a bit. "Kiddo." Reaching for the light besides the bed, he hesitated for a second before dropping onto the edge of the bed.

"House?" As the bed shifted, Rachel stirred enough to blink over at House, her nose wrinkling in confusion. Usually waking Rachel up was Cuddy's job in the morning, and both of them were new to the experience of how House would handle it. He reached for Rachel's shoulder, nudging her gently.

"Hey." Unsure of exactly what to say, House began slowly, "Time to get up."

"Where's mama?" Rachel blinked in confusion, and she kicked off her blankets, looking for her mother. Her gaze turned on House, and her expression softened, though she was still unsure of why her own morning routine was being changed.

House adverted his gaze, trying to think of the mature way to explain to his girlfriend's three year old daughter on why Cuddy was tired. "She couldn't sleep last night." A smirk slipped onto his lips when Rachel was turned away, and he stood, tugging the covers back over the bed. "Come on, we'll go wait for her in the master bedroom."

Rachel's face split into a wide grin, her eyes shining with the thought of seeing her mother first in the morning. "Yes daddy!" She grasped House's much larger hand in her own, nearly dancing in circles around him as he stood. Again, her use of the familial phrase "daddy" caught House off guard once again, and he followed her wordlessly back to the master bedroom.

Running to the bed, Rachel made what appeared to be a half dive and half flop onto the center of the bed, and she pulled the covers towards herself. "Where's mama?" She cocooned herself in the center of the blankets, her eyes wide with slight confusion, missing the sound of running water from the shower.

"Shower." House replied quickly, sitting besides Rachel, and he rested his hand on her shoulder lightly. "You know what today is, right?" In preparation for Rachel's first day of pre-kindergarten, he had promised Cuddy that he would help ease the morning along instead of lay in bed as usual.

"I don't wanna go." Of course, Rachel knew, and she stuck out her lower lip in a pout, her brown eyes focusing on House. She folded her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowed in that unique way that children her age could manage, "No."

"_Rachel_." House stressed, and he shifted on the bed, hoping Cuddy would be able to help urge her daughter to get ready soon. "You need to go." He glanced to where the outfit Cuddy had planned for the day lay out over the back of a chair, "Your mama will be very happy if you go."

"But no." Her lower lip stuck out even further, and Rachel looked up as the bathroom door cracked open, and Lisa Cuddy stuck her head out of the opening. "Mama!" She jumped off the bed, hurrying to where her mother adjusted the towel wrapped around her hair, "I don't wanna go!"

"You have to sweetie." Lifting her daughter into her arms, Cuddy blinked a few lone droplets of water off her eyelashes, glancing to where House sat on the bed in defeat. She let out a quiet sigh, already seeing why House had given up trying to encourage Rachel to get ready, and she reached up to tug the towel from her hair.

Pouting, Rachel's lips curved into a frown, and she squirmed from Cuddy's arms, returning to her spot besides House on the bed. "No mama." Her eyes were bright, and she let out a surprised squeal as House scooped her haphazardly in his arms.

"House!" Cuddy's eyes went wide, a mixture of surprise and concern in them as he lifted her off the blankets. "Be careful." Running her fingers through her hair, she nodded at her daughter as she made a face, "Rach, go pick something pretty out to wear, I'll be over to help you in a few minutes."

Letting Rachel go, House followed her to the door, before glancing back to look at Cuddy, "What about me?" His gaze flickered to where Rachel was pulling mismatched socks from her drawer, then he let a smirk slip onto his lips. "You didn't tell me what to do."

"I don't need to." Smirking back, Cuddy leaned forwards and kissed House gently on the lips, "Because you're going to get ready for work." She stretched up to kiss his nose, one of the few things that she knew he hated, and smirked a bit wider at his annoyance. Her expression changed slightly as House wrapped an arm around her waist, resting his lips against her forehead, "House...we need to get ready for work _and _to bring Rachel to her first day of pre-k."

"I know." House let go of Cuddy almost instantly, and he sidestepped her to grab his jeans and t-shirt in his hands. Side-eyeing her, he stepped into them, watching as she ran her fingers through her hair, "Don't you have a daughter to help get ready for today?" As he tugged his shirt on, he couldn't help but stare a bit harder as Cuddy pulled on her bathrobe. "Cuddles?"

"Don't." At the bedroom door, Cuddy glanced over her shoulder, her eyes slightly narrowed, "Call me Cuddles again." Crossing the hall, she stepped into Rachel's room, blinking in surprise at the mess of clothes strewn across the bed, and she folded her arms across her chest, "_Rachel_."

Twirling around in a bright pink skirt, and matching top with a heart on it, Rachel Cuddy stopped in mid-turn to look at her mother. "Mama." She smiled, her eyes bright, "do I look pretty?"

"Lovely." Cuddy held out her arms, returning her daughter's smile, and her breath hitched as Rachel half-jumped into her arms. She inhaled, hearing a knock at the bedroom door, and she rolled her eyes in surprise. "House." Once again, Rachel squirmed from her arms and made her way over to stand besides House, grabbing his hand in hers, "Can you fix something for breakfast?"

Nodding, House stepped forwards to kiss Cuddy again quickly, ignoring the common squeal of disgust from Rachel. "You seem to forget that I made you a home-cooked dinner on our second first date." He squeezed Rachel's hand as he looked at her, a smile on his lips as he looked between the two of them, feeling a new sense of pride as Rachel clung onto him.

"I do remember." Cuddy smirked, and she glanced at her daughter in mock amusement, "You almost overcooked the steak, then forgot the seasoning." She blinked, her voice dropping as her smirk widened, "Dessert was lovely though." Squeezing Rachel's shoulder, "Come on you two, get ready to the day."

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><p><strong>AN: Up next ... Cuddy and House bring Rachel to her first day of pre-kindergarten, and she gets asked an obvious question that's on everyone's mind.<strong>


	25. Part XXV

**Return**

**AN: Shh, don't tell anyone but the daycare (and teachers there) that Rachel goes to is loosely based off the one that I work at.**

**Also, I'm sorry that this took me so long to update - working full time for the past two weeks is making me more exhausted on weekends than I thought it would.**

_Summary: "But you know that I'm always going to be the one who screwed us up." He never expected her to admit defeat, but here she was. Lisa Cuddy was giving in._

_House/Cuddy. AU-ish. post 8x04._

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><p><span>Part XXV<span>

Pulling the silver Lexus into the parking lot of the day care on the outskirts of Princeton, Cuddy shifted in her seat to where House fiddled with his phone. She glanced back to where Rachel gave a short pout, then she turned her attention to the off-white building in front of her. "House, we're here." Reaching over, she snatched his phone from his hands, "Let's go."

As she hopped from the car, she circled it to wait besides Rachel's door, a nervous smile on her lips. Though she wouldn't admit it, she was much more nervous that either House or Rachel, and she fiddled with her car keys. "Nervous mama?" Her daughter spoke her own thoughts, and Cuddy gave a quick nod, biting the inside of her cheek.

"You'll be fine." Cuddy muttered, reassuring herself as she, House and Rachel all made their way towards the entrance of the building. She slipped her hand into House's, giving it a quick squeeze, and she let her smile return to her face as he squeezed her hand back. "Ready?"

Pressing her fingers against the doorbell, Rachel turned to stare at her mother, "I'm gonna have fun mama." She smiled, her eyes widening as a strawberry blonde woman appeared at the door, pushing it open. "Hi!"

"Hi." Lisa Cuddy loosened her grip on her daughter's arm, reaching out to shake the woman's hand, "Lisa Cuddy." She rested her hand on Rachel's shoulder almost immediately after letting go of the director's hand, "This is my daughter, Rachel."

"And this is my daddy House!" A grin split onto Rachel's face as she grabbed House's hand in her own, her eyes turning on the director of the daycare in front of her.

"Nice to meet you." The woman stuck her hand out to House, "My name's Kate Cooper, the director of the center." She smiled, slightly surprised at the nervous expression on House's face, and she glanced up to look back to Cuddy. "Do you want to all come in with me?"

"Are we going to my room?" Rachel looked up at Kate, her brown eyes wide in excitement, "I want to see my teacher!" She smiled a bit more, her elbow length ponytail swinging back and forth slightly as she blinked at her.

"Uh, all right!" Smiling, Kate took Rachel's free hand in her own, glancing to where Cuddy reached for House's hand, "Do the two of you have a list of approve pick up and drop off guardians?" She smiled a bit more, reassured as Cuddy produced the list, and she settled it on her desk in her office, "Right this way."

"Yay!" Bouncing up and down on her toes, Rachel's eyes brightened and she clung onto Kate's hand, her eyes shining. As the two of them lead the way to the pre-school classroom, there was a substantial bounce in her step as they went. Behind them, House and Cuddy glanced around curiously, taking in the activity in the building.

Squeezing her hand, House followed Cuddy's curious gaze, his voice hushed as he leaned closer to whisper in her ear. "Have you been here with her before?" The ambience was new to him, and he glanced around at the activity in the rooms around him.

"Two weeks ago." An amused smile appeared on her lips, and she squeezed House's hand back in response. "Remember, I told you that I was stopping by?" Cuddy blinked, turning her attention to where Kathy and Amy, Rachel's two pre-kindergarten teachers, were setting out paper placemats on the two tables at the front of the room. "Hey again Kathy, Amy." She nodded to the women, who looked up, happy to see their newcomer.

The older of the two women, Kathy, turned from the morning snack preparation she was doing, a smile appearing on her lips as she spotted Rachel in the doorway. "Morning Rachel!" She waved a gloved hand, before turning her attention back to the kid-sized pancakes she was serving onto paper plates.

"Amy," Kate stepped forwards, resting a hand on the woman's arm, "Rachel is here for her first day." She glanced to where a place was already set at the snack and lunch tables, "I see you already knew that."

"Lisa mentioned it to me last week when she stopped by." Smiling, Amy reached out to shake Cuddy's hand quickly, before she looked to Rachel. "Morning Rachel!" She gestured to where the empty place was set, "Do you want to sit and show your classmates that we're ready for snack?"

Nodding excitedly, Rachel wrapped her arms tightly around Cuddy's legs, hugging her tightly, "Good bye mama." She pulled her gaze back, her arms still around Cuddy's legs, her bright brown eyes turned on House, "Bye Howse." Letting go, she half flounced to the table, where she graciously took her seat.

"She's so sweet." Kathy commented, still at House and Cuddy's side, "I can see why you both waited so long to start her at daycare." She let a smile slip onto her features as Hannah, one of the younger members of the daycare, made her way to Rachel's end of the table. "Do you want to put her things in her cubby so you can be off to work?"

Cuddy nodded, her smile fading at the reminder of work, but it flickered back onto her lips as she thought of her working alongside the love of her life. Scanning the name placards above the cubbies, spotting Rachel's in between Hannah's and another girl's named Ruby's. She arranged the blankets for nap time, as well as the bag of requested items; such as a change of clothes and outdoor wear on the hook inside. "This seems like such a lovely place."

"It does." House was uncomfortably squatting nearby Rachel's end of the table, listening to her, Hannah and a little boy with dirty-blonde hair engage in a conversation over the pancakes they were about to be served. He glanced up, seeing that Cuddy, Rachel's teacher and the director seemed to be wrapping up their conversation, and he leaned forwards to kiss Rachel's forehead awkwardly. "See ya kiddo."

"Bye Howse!" Rachel's eyes lit up once more as House, Cuddy and the director of the center made their way back towards the entrance, before returning back to the syrupy pancakes in front of her.

- return -

"You're limping." Cuddy commented as they made their way towards the entrance of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, and she instinctively reached for the blue backpack on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Are you all right?"

"Other than missing half a thigh muscle, I'm fine." House snapped, a little too gruffly for her comfort, and he tightened his grip on his cane a bit more. He snatched the backpack back, almost angry at Cuddy for assuming that he couldn't help himself when he was in pain.

"You know that isn't what I meant." As always, Cuddy's voice was calm, and she wound her free arm around his, offering her support. "Do you want to sit for a few minutes?" She tugged on his arm almost anxiously, as if she didn't believe he was going to be all right with the walk into the hospital. There was a side of her that knew Foreman would be upset at them, and especially her, if she didn't urge House to manage his pain but she also knew House better than anyone else there.

"You know Foreman will have a fit if I don't." House made a sharp turn from the entrance of the hospital to the benches lining the side of the hospital, which overlooked the university's quad. He made it his favorite pastime to pretend to know what was on Cuddy's mind about his leg, while in reality, they both knew what they would have to deal with now that they worked together once again. Dropping onto the nearest bench, House turned to blink quietly at Cuddy, who joined him. "You're nervous."

"Of course." House's comment wasn't about his leg, and Cuddy gave a quick nod, blinking back at him, "Rachel hasn't been in a social environment like a daycare before, or at least not without me being there." She let the strap of her purse slip down her arm as she leaned ever so lightly against House's side, "An entire day is much different than a twenty minute visit."

Wordlessly, House grasped Cuddy's hand in his own, rubbing his thumb gently over the back of her hand, "Cuddy, it's all right." Turning his face towards hers, he brushed his lips against her forehead slowly, "You wouldn't be a good mother if you couldn't admit that you aren't nervous or scared about her." While he wouldn't admit it, House was worried too - not in the same sense that Cuddy was, about how well Rachel would interact with the other classmates, but instead how she would treat him when she stopped finding the fun in daycare.

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><p><strong>AN: Sorry it was short, and a bit choppy, next chapter will be better (and more important!). <strong>

**x**


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